Infinite Worm Loops
by Heliomance
Summary: From SpaceBattles, the Infinite Time Loops: Earth Bet Loop
1. Chapter 1

**1.1 (Heliomance)**

* * *

The first bullet hit me from behind, where my mask offered no coverage, and I slowly toppled. The second hit me before I could fall, before there could be any pain.

-x-x-x-x-

Darkness. Stench. Things crawling all over me, in my head, squirming. So many horrible, slimy things, invading my head. I had nightmares about this, still - had had nightmares. Before I was Khepri. When I was still human. Was this Hell? Had Contessa killed me, and now I would spend the rest of eternity in that locker?

I screamed. I clawed at the door. I vomited. I gave up. I barely noticed when they opened the door, and light came.

-x-x-x-x-

Lung's claws ripped into my stomach. I still wasn't understanding what was going on. I'd followed my footsteps from last time - the first time - numbly, not comprehending. And now my blood was spilling out, and the last thing I saw was Lung's dragon mask.

-x-x-x-x-

Darkness. Stench. The locker. I was dead. This was Hell.

-x-x-x-x-

I didn't care anymore. I saved the world once, and ended up in Hell for it. When Leviathan came, I didn't get to safety. I drowned in the first wave.

-x-x-x-x-

Darkness. Stench. The locker.

-x-x-x-x-

Death was no escape. I was in Hell. Death would just send me back to the locker. I might as well try to live, avoid that torture that way.

-x-x-x-x-

Two years. I managed two years. Stayed out of the way of everything, never got involved with the capes. Then Scion went mad again.

-x-x-x-x-

Darkness. Stench. The locker.

-x-x-x-x-

Darkness. Stench. The locker.

-x-x-x-x-

Darkness. Stench. The locker.

-x-x-x-x-

Darkness.

That was new. No stench. No maggots crawling. No blood. More space.

* * *

 **1.2 (BIOS-Pherecydes)**

* * *

A lot more space.

A whole lot more space. Literally space space, as in beyond the stars. I opened my eyes to the inside of a structure that resembled nothing more than a giant pulsing organ, stretching out in all directions. My mind was assaulted by countless others, more than I had ever imagined. Hunters. Predators. Killers. Warriors. Drones. Larva. Broods. Trillions of servile minds all linked to mine and stretching out across the gulf of space for distances unimaginable. The place I rested my massive insectoid body was composed of infinite lifeforms which responded to my will. As were the walls and floors and even the weapons of the living ship which carried me between the stars, and into other spaces less and somehow more real.

My spawn scurried back and forth, feeding the new members of the swarm or moving my newly birthed eggs to the nursery to be tended to as they awaited planetfall. From a growth before me seeped a viscous liquid — food my memories supplied me. Made up of the annihilated and liquified remains of the worlds which had been conquered and consumed; broken down into usable material which was then siphoned back into the Hive to be processed and the useful genes picked out and passed on to the Swarm. My mind stretched out in all directions, including ones I had no name for, as well as into the past; millions of years of evolution dictated by myself and my sister-queens. Conflict and agreement over every choice, every possible mutation of the genome which made up my species since time immemorial; each decision old and simultaneously fresh as it lived on forever in the Hive Mind.

On this planet I directed the swarm to finish converting the last of the biomass into genetic material, their swollen bodies following our orders as they plunged into the Reclamation Pools to be disassembled into slurry which was to be fed into one of our sister-queen's ships. On another planet we guided the spores which carried the seeds of conquest safely to ground, to begin the process of gathering and conversion. In the far distance of the void a beacon of light shone, directing ourself and our sisters inward. The sensory ship reaches out at our command, seeking out a path and compressing the distance for transit.

The species would live on.

!

Pain! Panic! Disunity! What was happening? One of the sisters was rebelling, fighting the collective. Why? No, wait... I was rebelling. That was me. I am me. Not the swarm, not the Hive.

The weight of trillions of minds pushed down on me at the direction of my sisters, no the others. Millions of years of evolution and racial memories threatened to buckle my mind. I reached out, seeking anchors as I had before.

There! The oldest, the one least under thrall. The lord of the swarm. Releasing control of all but the most essential of my swarm I reached out and forced my will upon the other mind. Lesser in every way to my own, and genetically designed by intention to be subservient, it obeyed and in an instant I cut it loose from my sisters' reach. The lord of the swarm was a separate and concurrent part of the Hive, able to appear at any place our Mind touched. Separately and simultaneously. Under my direction it manifested itself, over and over on countless ships throughout the cosmos and leading back to our ancient first sector; picked clean of everything useful from microbes to atmosphere.

With surgical precision I cut my sisters down; on every ship, on every planet for quadrillions of miles in a geometric spread backwards for as far as our race had advanced since its birth. The psychic scream of trillions of voices echoed outward in a mental light which temporarily blinded my swarm sense. At the exact same moment every ship our race possessed calved a new sister to replace those slain. They were fresh however, unprepared though they possessed all the knowledge of their forebears through the Hive Mind. Reaching out I pushed with my full might, backed by the entire force of the Hive Mind; uncontested by any other for this sole moment alone while all other voices had gone silent.

As one my sisters submitted to my will, my purpose replacing their own. Their ships became an extension of myself, their bodies nodes through which to extend my control. Trickling downward from there every member of my species snapped to attention under my direct control. Several quadrillion minds, all poised at my mental fingers to do my bidding.

As one voice; spread out over thousands of star-systems, hundreds of thousands of dead worlds; I screamed. I was in Hell... and I had become the Devil. My name is Legion, for we are many.

-x-x-x-x-

 _In the year 745 M41 mankind would make first contact with a new xenos race. In the years to come it would be noted frequently that several signs of their approach were reported by the Imperial Explorators, but that no following orders were ever issued. The Adeptus Mechanicus outpost on Tyrus Prime were thus left wholly unprepared for the events that followed._

 _The exact details are unknown, due largely to a phenomena which has come to be titled the Shadow in the Warp, but enough information exists to allow speculation on the Fall of Tyrus. The only unquestioned detail however is that for reasons and by methods unknown a psychic backlash echoed throughout the Warp of such intensity that it slew all current Chosen members of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, rendering the Astronomicon silent for the first time since its creation. The Emperor's might alone allowed all Imperial ships still traveling the Warp to reach safe passage, but thereafter the race of Man was isolated from its worlds as it hadn't been since the Great Crusade._

 _By the time new Chosen were called from the trained Astronomica Acolytes by the Emperor's Will it was far too late to uncover the truth. Further investigation revealed the people of Tyran Prime, the closest Imperial world to the source of the disturbance, had been rendered braindead; their minds wiped by the fury of the Warp Scream, as it would be later named. After considerable examination, sensor recordings of several ships of unknown design were tracked leaving the area. They were named after the world from which contact was first reported, Tyranids._

 _Direct contact with the Tyranids on any Imperial world would not occur for the next two centuries, despite the Ordo Xenos given designation of Xenos Horrificus and numerous sightings. Instead the Tyranids fell within the sight of the Ork Warboss, eventually Warlord, Ironteef after interfering in a burgeoning WAAAGH! with the Kroot. Thereafter it became common to see Kroot mercenary ships fighting alongside the Tyranid ships as a massive campaign was waged against the Orks; one that nearly a century as more and more Orks fell under Ironteef's banner and joined in what became the Ork's Great WAAAGH!, the conflict that almost wiped the Ork race and all Ork worlds from the galaxy._

 _It was only in the year 919 M41, slightly less than thirty years after the Great WAAAGH! that had consumed two Xenos Horificus species for the better part of two hundred years and in the process allowed the Imperium the luxury of greatly uncontested growth, that direct contact with the Tyranids would take place._

-x-x-x-x-

'Like any newly-commissioned young commissar I faced my first assignment with an eagerness mixed with trepidation. I was, after all, the visible embodiment of the will of the Emperor Himself; and I could scarce suppress the tiny voice which bade me wonder if, when tested, I would comport myself in such a way to bring honor to his name. Never in a million years did I imagine I would be doing so as the representative to what would become the first Xenos Imperious Auctor.

— Ciaphas Cain, To Serve the Emperor:

''A Commissar's Life'' 104. M42

The Loops have taught me more than a few lessons over my dramatically extended service. First and foremost among those lessons is how to take almost any departure from what I thought I knew and what actually was with a smile and an easy step. I'm not ashamed however to admit my heart missed a beat as I reviewed my Loop memories in the back of the shuttle on the way to my first posting on Desolatia IV. I was going into a situation which almost guaranteed an invasion of Tyranid forces, and due to a fluke in the timeline the best Imperial intel had to offer regarding what to expect from that inevitable encounter was secondhand information from the Tyranid/Ork War which had lasted nearly the past two hundred years. The implications were not lost on me.

Even before I stepped out into the blazing heat of the landing field I was already working out a method that involved leaving the planet as quickly as possible. Preferably with Jurgen in tow I reminded myself as I caught whiff of my would be aide's unique odor. Friendship aside, his abilities as a Blank would be indispensable in an Imperium with no functional knowledge of the Tyranid Hive Mind. Turning with a smile that did nothing to hint at the thoughts underneath, I turned to face my escort.

"Commissar Cain," I introduced. 'And you are…?'

"Gunner Jurgen. Colonel sends his apologies, but he's busy." He had the state of mind to be apologetic, and I waved it off calmly. I watched as the ground crew started to unload the cargo, crates and mining machinery larger than I was. The mines were the reason we were here; to ensure the continued supply of whatever this desert planet provided the Imperium and to ward off the stragglers of the Ork tribes which might be tempted to land here to lick their wounds from their devastating losses barely more than two full decades past.

"No doubt," I replied. Mostrue was the same as ever at least, which meant that it would be painfully simple to set things up to my liking as I had the first time around. Just because I didn't intend to remain here overly long, didn't mean I wanted to be uncomfortable in the meantime after all. I followed Jurgen back to the Salamander, mentally tallying up any possible leverage I had this Loop that I could call in to get myself reassigned to a different station; preferably one as far from the path I recalled the Tyranids using to work their way into the Imperium. Perhaps Intelligence; Warp knew I had more information than anyone else alive on Tyranid behavior this Loop. Maybe I could write up some pamphlets.

Hm... That was something I'd never done actually. Hero of the Imperium by way of paperwork. Nice safe paperwork.

-x-x-x-x-

I hadn't intended to go to war. That had been the Orks' fault. All I had wanted to do was try and figure out what the hell was going on in Hell. Then one of my ships had run into a battle being fought between them and a much smaller force and I decided that even if I was in Hell that didn't mean I was going to let a bunch of bullies have their way. The end result was I had managed to piss off an entire race of space orcs straight out of one of those fantasy games from Earth Aleph. However I had also managed to gain the gratitude of the Kroot whom I'd saved.

Unfortunately, whatever I had become didn't have the ability to speak which made communication difficult. Not impossible by any stretch as I still had the ability to use the swarm's buzzing to talk, but since the smallest members of my Hives were nearly a foot long it tended to send the wrong message when hundreds of them gathered together. Instead I had the help of a race of my Swarm's former slaves, who had been frequently used to investigate new species for genetic viability in advance to my ships' arrival. It had taken the better part of the seventy years prior to encountering the Orks to undo the damage done to and build relations with the Zoat, but in the end I had managed to convince them that I was different than the previous incarnation of whatever I was; and they in turn helped iron out an agreement with the Kroot, once I had convinced them that the Hive Mind was entirely under my control and wouldn't re-enslave them.

The Kroot themselves agreed to partner with my ships in exchange for providing them with some of the organic weapons my swarm used, and a meeting with their Tau allies. The meeting with the Tau was an interesting event. Their Greater Good was a concept that I agreed with on a lot of levels, but they reminded me way too much of the Yàngbăn for my liking. In the end they agreed to leave my swarm be so long as I didn't attack them first, and wouldn't object to the Kroot fighting alongside my Hives. In exchange I merely had to avoid worlds they had claimed as part of their growing Empire. I had already intended to do that anyway, so the agreement had cost me nothing. I had no intention of slaughtering the galaxies for raw material.

Uninhabited worlds of course were still fair game however, and in between using the Lord of the Swarm to engage in peace talks with the Zoat I had focused on shoring up the obvious holes in my swarm. Of course there weren't enough worlds with usable material but no sentient species to foot the entire bill. As a result I ended up forcibly recycling well over forty percent of my swarm to get the needed materials. In the end however it allowed me to ensure that one in five members of any given Hive Ship was directly connected to the Hive Mind. I had learned from Amy's Relay Bugs just how useful having the ability to extend the control of my swarm was, and I wasn't taking any chances on losing them the way I had with Amy's short lived gifts.

It would have been really handy to be able to design my bugs from the genes up back when I wasn't stuck in Hell.

The next step was much more difficult; namely making it so that my swarm was capable of self-contained reproduction. No more stripping a planet of literally everything that wasn't rock; it tended to leave a bad impression on the locals. Unfortunately that project hit a dead end once the Orks began harassing my hives. At first I had tried reasoning with them, but I quickly realized that that was an exercise in futility. After that I just avoided them whenever I could. But they weren't willing to let me be.

Eventually I was forced to retaliate, and they escalated the fight until my swarm had overrun their ships; consuming everything in its path. I had just wanted a little peace, but instead I was forced into a fight where even when I won I still came out on the bottom. Pragmatism however won out, and my swarm feasted. In the process I discovered two things. One: even if I myself didn't ingest the genetic slurry being funneled back into my Hive Ships, the 'taste' was passed along anyway. As the only mind in control it was up to me to decide which genes would be incorporated into the swarm, so I couldn't block out any of it. And Two: the Orks were not a natural race; memories of billions of years of guided evolution made it blatantly obvious to my senses that the Orks had been designed. They were made for war, in the most literal of meanings. They needed it, the same way other races needed water.

In other words, they weren't going to stop. They were going to keep attacking me, over and over, until one or the other of us was dead or defeated.

And they did, for nearly a two centuries; to the point that I was forced to fall back on the ingrained instincts of the Swarms to protect my Hives. We were forced to continue long past the point any intelligent race would have retreated to recover, but eventually the remaining Orks did learn the lesson. I don't ever think I'll be able to sleep again without having nightmares about the worlds we ate; now nothing more than barren rocks in space. Assuming of course I ever regained the ability to sleep.

Again I cannibalized the excess, and repurposed the materials left over into a functional swarm capable of self-propagation; all of which were directly connected to the Hive Mind I controlled. No more gaps. In between I worked with the Zoat and Kroot to form a working alliance. In exchange for genetic material they could feed on to advance their species, the Kroot would help me find an empty system I could root my Hives and the Zoat would be the spokesmembers until I could work vocal cords into the rest of the swarm. So far the only member of the swarm I had given the ability to speak was the one I had previously called the Lord of the Swarm.

I admit I had grown fond of the one that had allowed me to take control of the Hive, it reminded me of Atlas. I had named the giant beetle after the strongest of the Greek legends, the Titan who held up the sky. Along the same lines, I had named the Lord of the Swarm after the Greek god able to travel anywhere at the speed of thought: Hermes. Whenever I needed to perform a single task personally, Hermes was the member of the swarm which I used to do it. Part of that was the fact that his size and appearance provided a useful edge which I had grown used to as Skitter; the rest of it was the idea that if I was going to be a Devil, it was best I looked the part.

After all, when in Hell...

-x-x-x-x-

"Gunner Erhlsen, out of uniform on sentry duty." Toren Divas reported, the nervous Erhlsen nearly wilting under his glare.

"Who isn't in this heat?" I replied by rote. To my infinite dismay I had utterly failed to properly find a route free from the mire I had Awoken in. There hadn't been any response to the Ping I had sent which meant that either Leman wasn't answering for some reason or there was a Stealth Anchor somewhere. I made a point of sending out another Ping every day anyway, on the off chance someone else would Awaken, but so far to no avail. By this point I had resigned myself to what was likely to be one of my shorter Loops. "Nevertheless, despite the obvious extenuating circumstances, we have to retain some standards. Five days' kitchen duty. And put some trousers on."

Erhlsen gave a relieved salute at that, and quickly retreated in case I decided to dole out the typical flogging he likely expected for the infraction.

"I must say, Cain, you're not quite what I'd expected." Divas noted as he began to getting his paperwork together now that the last of the defaulters had been dealt with. "When they told us we were getting a commissar…"

"Everyone panicked. Assumed I'd be one of the hard-arse killjoys, am I right?" I asked with an amiable chuckle, the persona I wore to put people at ease fitting just as easily now as it ever had in Baseline.

Divas merely shrugged noncommittally. "You know your job better than I do, of course." Divas hesitated. "But don't you think you might be a little… well…

"Possibly. But a little leniency is good for morale. Keep the spirits up under this heat." This had the benefit of even being somewhat true. My belief that commanders who didn't throw their weight around being preferred over unknown possible alternatives, and protected as such in times of trouble, was as secure now as it ever was; but at least a small part of it was the acknowledgement that I wanted to make what was likely to be the final month for many of these men as comfortable as possible. Unlike me, they didn't get another chance if things went bad.

The silence from the Earthshakers was telling as we stepped out into the murderous heat and I realized with an unpleasant twist that time was just about up. Looking to the distance I scanned the area I knew Jurgen would be coming from. And there he was. Running full tilt from the battery offices, he caught sight of us and adjusted his course accordingly.

"Sir! Commissar! Colonel wants to see you right away!" Jurgen shouted out as he made his way over.

"What's wrong?" I asked, hoping I was wrong but knowing I wasn't.

"Nothing sir." He said with a salute, a wide grin stretching across his face. "They're pulling us out!"

"Yes, it's true." Mostrue seemed as pleased at the news as everyone else. He pointed at the hololithic display."The higher ups finally decided that we'd be more useful in a more high contact area and are moving us to join up with the Keffia task force. We'll need to get the Earthshakers limbered up for transport.'

"I'll see to it." Divas spoke up and Mostrue nodded.

"Seems a bit excessive for a handful of rebels." One of the officers, even after all this time I still never remembered to look and see which one, muttered.

"Then it shouldn't be hard now. Astropaths place the fleet at a few days out from planetside, that'll give us plenty of time to rendezvous."

I didn't have anything to contribute this time around, and even if I had it wouldn't have been believed, so I simply listened in as Mostrue set about ordering the men to pack up and prepare to ship out. However the last sentence was running on repeat in my head as I made my way outside. If the Astropaths still had contact with the fleet, did that mean the Tyranids had chosen a different target? I began to hope that maybe the only thing I'd have to worry about after all was reclaiming an agriworld from rebels. I wasn't counting on it though.

-x-x-x-x-

It had started as a metaphorical itch in the back of my mind; but before long it had become an incessant screaming that forced my attention away from working on the evolution of my swarm. Despite the ability to cast my attention outward into the Hive Mind and follow through the eyes of any and every member of my hives I myself hadn't moved from where I was for over two hundred years. Not only was I going absolutely crazy with the need to move, but my body was failing me as well. As such I really couldn't be sparing the time from my attempt to copy Hermes' ability to live on in the Hive Mind. If I died, the swarm would likely descend back into the previous chaos I had dragged it out of. But more importantly I was horrified at the idea that I would wake up in the Locker again.

This may have been Hell, but it was an easier Hell than I was used to. The thought of going back to repeatedly living my life over and over, fixing things or failing completely; and either way ending up back in the Locker again was enough to send a wave of physical pain throughout the swarm, temporarily crippling my entire Hive. I wasn't ready to go back there, and until I was I would do whatever I had to to make sure I didn't.

Unfortunately, that did nothing to resolve the blaring klaxon thundering in my Mind. Reaching out I pushed my senses as far as they would go until I found the source; a planet back towards the brilliant beacon that shone constantly outward. I had decided to ignore that almost immediately after noticing it before, and nothing about that decision had ever made me think it was incorrect. This other noise though was too close, too similar to my own. It reminded me almost of what Panacea had done to my bugs during the bank robbery. Turning my own swarm against me.

However, my memories from before I remembered who I was told me exactly what this was. Part of the Swarm from before the war with the Orks had finally reached critical mass and their presence was signalling my former sisters for dinner.

Well crap. I couldn't just leave untended portions of my swarm to destroy another planet; I'd have to deal with this. Reaching out to the sensor ships I directed them back toward the worlds I had moved away from not that long ago.

Space pinched and we were somewhere else.

If I ever did go back, I'd have to see about replicating that ability with my normal swarms; teleportation was awesome. With another mental prod space pinched again.

-x-x-x-x-

Despite my earlier misgivings the battle at Keffia was surprisingly free of Tyranid invasions. It was plainly obvious to me that we were facing a genestealer cult; however as this was the Imperium's first contact with Tyranid tactics the inhuman appearance of the 'rebels' had been confused for Chaos taint. Reinforcements were being sent and the agriworld was likely to be subjected to Exterminatus; but for now the Bioship hadn't appeared and we were making steady progress against the 'traitors' with each day. Nevertheless, I still kept my ears to the ground for any sign of the Shadow in the Warp making an appearance, which was why approximately two weeks after the battle began I was the first to notice when it did.

Naturally my first action was to make an excuse to return to the nearest ship in preparation for the incoming fleet. I had even almost made it when my radio screamed to life. "Sir, we're detecting a Warp Portal."

My palms started tingling and I casually picked up my pace, grabbing Jurgen as I passed and making my way back to the transit ship.

"Commissar? Where are you going?"

Mostrue, damn. "Command just let me know they've detected a Warp Portal. The transport has scanners, I can use them to get an idea what we're dealing with. It might be the reinforcements, or..."

"Shit."

I shrugged. "You and I both know I'm not much use here, I'm the odd man out. Instead, I would be better put to use dealing with command while you and your men deal with the rebels."

Mostrue squinted suspiciously at me for a moment, but nodded. "Fine. Figure out what we're—"

Gunfire abruptly drowned out the clearing, coming from the frontlines before the radio sounded out again. "Sir... The rebels just shot each other. All enemy combatants are down."

I met Mostrue's confused gaze with one of my own. Okay, now I officially had no idea what was going on here. The tingling in my palms increased.

-x-x-x-x-

Upon getting near the planet from which the mental clarion was coming, I brought my swarm to a halt. Bitter experience had taught me never to be too careful, and so I splintered a small section of the hive and sent it ahead to scout the area. The moment it arrived I immediately seized control of the errant members of the swarm, and in return I was rewarded by blessed silence. Looking out through their eyes I was caught off guard however to see just what my swarm had been fighting. Humans. Slightly odd humans, but definitely humans.

Ewww... that meant the swarm expected to pump liquid people back up into the ships. No way was I eating that. Bad enough I had had to deal with Ork thorough second-hand exposure from the other queens. I couldn't exactly let them run free however. I picked at the small connection they shared between each other. It reminded me of some of the parasitic insects I had researched prior to my first night as a cape, albeit far more advanced and targeted towards humans rather than animals or other insects. Interestingly, not all the 'hosts' were mindless. Only a few of them had anything like actual sapience, but most of the 'hybrids' had enough mental understanding that I was able to gather the important details. Most important was figuring out the language, which was like nothing I'd ever heard. Hundreds of hosts' memories of growing up among the prey made that easy enough. Then came actually picking out details.

The humans were part of an Imperium that had spanned the past forty thousand years, and were engaged in a neverending war against _everything_. Including godlike monstrosities that sought to kill them, corrupt them or eat their souls every hour of every day. They worshiped their own godlike Emperor who protected them from the Warp gods' manipulations, and was the source of the blazing beacon — which I even now had to studiously ignore — through methods which I didn't have the full details of but were clearly not pleasant from what information I'd gathered. They had a literally fanatical hatred of anything alien which meant if I showed up using Hermes I'd have probably started the newest out of countless other genocidal wars already fought and 'won.'

As I thought. Hell.

That confirmation aside, I set about fixing this incident. Directing the most human looking adult female hybrid to retreat into the forest alongside the purestrain members of the miniature Hive, I gave the order for the rest to turn on one another. Even though none of them were truly intelligent, without a doubt this would be yet another thing that would haunt my nightmares for the rest of forever. A parting gift from my time as the devil.

Only once the last of the rogue swarm had been dealt with did I turn my 'sight' towards the humans. They were hard to pin down to any nationality I recognized, and all of the ones I could see were male with larger than normal musculature. Additionally they held weapons straight out of a sci-fi movie; lasers and blasters, and was that a chainsaw sword? Obviously this was an army of some kind. Which meant there was a commanding officer somewhere; hopefully one who wasn't likely to shoot first and ask questions never.

-x-x-x-x-

In the makeshift camp we stood in I reviewed what I knew. One: the Tyranids were stronger than I had ever seen them, not least because Hive Fleet Behemoth was still active. Two: no one in the Imperium had even a thousandth of an idea about what was about to happen; although the fact that no spores had yet begun raining down was both a positive, since I didn't like dying, and a negative, since I had no idea what the change in tactics meant. Three: If by some miracle I survived this I was taking the rest of the Loop off.

"Sir, we can't contact the Astropaths. There's no response at all." Divas, worried but doing his best to hide it.

"Fuck. What in the Emperor's name is going on?!" Mostrue, his head held in his hands and reports cluttering the table.

That was a good question actually. With the genestealer cult having shot each other down I was just as confused as they were, probably even more so. The tingling in my palms spiked and I was instantly alert. Something was off, something... it was too still. Where were the insects that had been flying about before?

A staccato burst of lasgun fire rang out, the trees around us making it hard to tell from which direction it had come from, and had us all on our feet in an instant; weapons in hand. Jurgen came running into sight moments later, sketching out a salute as he came to a stop directly in front of us breathing heavily. "Sirs, we have reports of a daemon approaching."

...Well. This just kept getting better, didn't it? And now they were looking at me. Shit.

"Keep any psykers we have as far away as possible. The last thing we need is them succumbing to the Ruinous Powers now. Mostrue, can you and your men secure the area? We don't want any surprises."

Mostrue nodded, actually appearing relieved at my having taken command instead of being his usual irritable self. Good, that meant he wouldn't question me. Now I just needed to find a way out of here. Not waiting to see what happened next, I walked calmly out from under the command tent and towards where I remembered the light shuttle was waiting. I didn't really think I would be able to avoid the Tyranid notice, but the planet's biomass should have been enough to make pursuit not worth the effort. Unfortunately, I had barely made it a hundred meters before _it_ appeared.

Nearly thirty feet of scales and claws, four bone sabers capable of cutting through any defense in its way; escorted by a pair of Kroot and a single female genestealer cultist, the pinnacle of Tyranid evolution. The Swarmlord.

Any hope I had of leaving this planet alive died a whimpering death. Then, in defiance of every natural law of reality I thought I knew, it spoke.

 _ **=Weee ccomee innn peeacccee=**_

...

...

...

Nope. Nope. Nopenopenopenopenope. Nope!

-x-x-x-x-

I admit I may have gotten into the spirit of things a bit too much with the greeting, but Regent probably would have killed me if he ever found out I had the chance to use that line and hadn't. I had expected a bit more of a positive reaction though. Even a fear reaction would have made more sense. Instead the man I had identified as probably the highest authority figure around facepalmed. Then as if once wasn't enough he did it again, before glaring at me.

"Ha ha. Very funny. Why the hell didn't you Ping? No, nevermind. Just go hide in the forest before someone sees you, I'd really rather not end up being labeled a Heretic this early in the Loop."

What? Wait _what?_ Loop? As in _Time Loop?_

Without thinking I closed the space between us using Hermes, bending down until I was face to face with him. He flinched despite his earlier bravado, and I realized what I had done; pulling back enough that I wasn't right in front of him. "You know about the time Loops?" I shouted out using the female hybrid I had brought to communicate properly. Hermes had been intended as a bit of a joke, but that had clearly backfired.

His eyes widened, before his face met his palms for a third time. "Of all the... of course you would be a new Looper." He looked up with a sympathetic gaze. "You must have even worse luck than I do to end up as a Tyranid your first time out. Alright, here's what's going to happen. You take the Hive Fleet away from this planet and leave this one," he pointed at the me I had spoken with, "behind until we've cleared out the 'rebels' and made sure this planet doesn't get written off as unsalvageable. Once we do that I'll have the chance to explain things. Lay low and try not to get this planet, and more importantly us, killed. In the meantime I'll try and see if I can pass off the Warp portal as your Kroot friends. We've hired them before in other sectors, so maybe I can get them filed as Sanctioned Xenos. Never had Kroot in the Valhallans before."

The last part was whispered to himself, and I therefore ignored it in favor of the important details. My swarm was apparently known as Tyranids; I had nearly gotten another planet destroyed, by accident this time instead of self-defense; and most important of all, _I wasn't alone._ I could finally get answers for why I was trapped in this hell. If any of my swarm had been capable of it, I might have cried.

-x-x-x-x-

Two weeks after the events on Keffia had settled into a calm blur of normality, I finally had a chance to sit down and talk with the new Looper; Taylor she identified herself as. The new Sanctioned Kroot guarded the door to my office as I sat down across from the genestealer cultist she was using to blend in. Getting the Kroot approved had been no simple task, but years of politics and my intimate understanding of Imperial law had made it possible, and I was greatly looking forward to seeing what changed as a result of it. More worryingly however was listening to what Taylor had done after Awakening and claiming control of the Hive Mind.

I wasn't sure if I should be relieved or terrified beyond words at the idea of Tyranids that could reproduce on their own. I was less uncertain about all of the Tyranids being Synapse Creatures. No weak points she says! That's a nightmare I'd be having for a while.

"Holy shit, I did it."

Drawn from my musings, I looked up to see Taylor's puppet body repeatedly vanishing and reappearing an apple into her newly perfected Pocket. "Good. That and the Ping are the two most important abilities you'll need for your time in the Loops. Pocket sizes vary between Loopers in the beginning, but it'll get bigger over time. Going by what you said your typical powers are, I'm assuming you'll be using it to store insects frequently. That's fine, but make sure you release them before they evolve sapience. Living things are a moral grey area, but intelligent things don't go in your Pocket unless you intend to take them back out soon after. Otherwise you run the risk of losing the ability to see them as anything other than property, and that way lies madness on a scale even Loopers should avoid."

Taylor nodded. "I can understand that. I'll probably spend some time breeding smaller versions of the Tyranids so I can keep their genetic template handy for later. If I can't take the whole Hive back with me, I'd at least like the ability to reverse engineer Hermes later."

I paled. Hermes was her name for the Swarmlord right? Holy Terra Mother of Man, this woman was going to be terrifying once she got a few years on her. I forced myself to smile weakly. "We can talk about that later. For now we should figure out what to do with the rest of this Loop. I'm thinking we pass the Tyranids off as a race contacted by humanity prior to the Age of Strife, only now rediscovering its old allies after taking to the stars."

Taylor raised an eyebrow at me and I shrugged. "Worst case scenario it fails, and you're no worse off than you already are. If it works though you might be able to lose your Xenos Horrificus label. I know where we can find a reasonably intact STC, you hand that off to the Adeptus Mechanicus and it should buy you some leeway. You can see out of the eyes of all of your drones right?"

Taylor nodded.

"Good, if you offer to help the Imperium find more of them it'll probably earn you a lot of credit. We have nearly two hundred years to work with, lets see what happens." I lifted his glass. "If nothing else, I can honestly say this is the first time I've ever tried to make an alliance with the Tyranids. To new experiences."

Taylor lifted her own glass with a relieved grin. "To not being in hell."

I just laughed. They were definitely in hell, just not the one she thought. Still, new friends were always a good thing. Unless they were pink. Pink friends were terrifying.

* * *

 **1.3 (BIOS-Pherecydes)**

* * *

It had taken a while after my return from the time as the Tyranid Queen to get the hang of the new abilities which had come back with me. The most important thing was that the power of the Hive Mind was still mine. I could use it to armor myself in a psychic shield or become effectively invisible, make myself faster and stronger, heal myself, create lances of psychic energy, a terrifying aura, ignite an enemies nerves with pain, even redesign my swarm genetically using the biomorphs I had created to mimic the Norn Queen's 'digestive' processes. I was even telekinetic now for crying out loud!

Additionally, thanks to my own powers I could spread the effects of the Hive Mind to my regular insects; creating a basically miniaturized Tyranid army with all the psychic force that implied. Getting enough biomass to grow my _actual_ Tyranid army to full size would have to be a long term project, but all in all I had a lot more options to work with now.

I admit it had gone to my head a bit.

 _Sham down, CD-5. Acoustic deceased, CD-5. Harsh Mistress down, CD-5. Resolute deceased, CD-5. Woebegone down, CD-5_ …

I let loose with a dozen Psychic Shrieks from my swarm, the mental attack causing Leviathan to jerk back moments before Legend's lasers blindsided him. As a result the retaliatory water geyser was a half-second slower to form which meant that many more of the Protectorate Leader's attacks hit the hydrokinetic Endbringer. I added in my own attacks, sending a group of bugs to strike with bolts of psychic electricity. At the same time I spread out my remaining insects to search out anyone still alive.

The eagle masked cape with the mashed leg was the first one I found, but unlike usual I actually had a way to save him for once. A burst of psychic enhanced speed brought me to him, and after looking around for a reasonable safe area teleported us out of the way. I pushed down on the two buttons on my bracelet and spoke as clearly as possible for Dragon. "Need pickup at this location. I'm going back out."

There was a pause and then, "Understood."

Without waiting, I rushed back out into the onslaught. There was a crash as Leviathan whipped his tail toward Legend, a blade of water soaring through the air to strike the hero out of the air; only to come up short as I interfered using Hermes. I had used the cast-offs from Bitch's powers as raw material, but even still Hermes was only about seven feet tall. Seven feet of pure evolutionary primacy however was still nothing to scoff at, and his semi-autonomous nature meant he had the ability to act on the genetic memories in ways I hadn't yet managed to figure out manually.

While I split my concentration between having him intercept the brunt of Leviathan's waves so Legend could continue his laser barrage, searching for capes I could help and harassing Leviathan with Psychic Shrieks and Warp Blasts, Alexandria charged forward directly into Leviathan's water echo. Legend's lasers were still striking hard and fast, and Hermes' boneswords were cutting deeper than almost any other attack, but it was still Alexandria which really made the difference.

Leviathan swiped his arms forward, stopping short and letting the water echo do the work for him. Alexandria went through it like a hot knife through butter, but the rest of those in it's path weren't so lucky.

 _Chubster deceased, CD-5. Good Neighbor deceased, CD-5. Hallow deceased, CD-5, Strapping Lad down, CD-5. Intrepid down, CD-5._

Miss Militia stepped up, firing nonstop as her power replenished her ammunition. I added my own shots to the volley using my own armaments. Most of the biomorphs were mostly useless to me, being either parasitic or indiscriminate, but I had managed to equip a fully sized Ripper host with a miniaturized fleshborer hive to provide the additional biomass. The results were a short lived weapon that fired nearly a hundred fleshborer beetles in the span of about thirty seconds. So long as I pointed it in the right direction, and made sure to aim away from anything I didn't want getting hit, I could land every shot with reasonable accuracy.

The blind insects landed on Leviathans skin and immediately began burrowing, ripping through the first and second layers before losing the ability to move any further and exploding in a acidic spray which ate away at the surrounding tissues. Leviathan responded by lashing his arms forward, sending a massive wave that tore through our front lines.

Narwhal raised a dozen forcefields which diverted the worst of the attack however, and I quickly moved back with a burst of psychic enhanced speed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Narwhal send the formerly defensive barriers flying into Leviathan, cutting deeper where my own shots had landed and where Hermes occasionally landed his own; in between shielding Legend from the continuous barrage of water echoes.

Turning away for a moment I spotted the woman who's face had been torn apart, and with an uncomfortable grimace knelt down next to her; my hand glowing as I cauterized her wound. I'd seen worse in the four hundred years in the Warhammer Branch, but that didn't really make it any easier to burn a woman's face halfway to the bone. Once I had finished, I quickly called for a rescue for her as well and then jumped back into the fight. Leviathan had finally managed to knock Legend out of the air, his skin glowing white from the steady blitz of laser fire. Unfortunately that just meant that every one of his water echoes was literally boiling as he slung them across the field.

An alert from my armband told me what I knew was coming. The capes closest to Leviathan were quickly pulling back, a mad rush to get out of the way of the oncoming tidal wave being sent our way. This was where my ace came in. Well, not mine exactly.

"To me!" the voice of Shielder rang out, and I immediately broke for cover. Hermes on the other hand continued his attack against Leviathan, keeping him too occupied to direct the wave completely and allowing me enough time to get to Miss Militia. Her eyes widened as I approached, but I didn't give her any time to say anything; pressing a small object into her hands.

"Use it on the wave!"

To her credit, she didn't bother asking any questions; simply forming an rpg and attaching the bomb I had handed her. "Clear!"

The small device flew overhead as the wave came down, smacking into the center and erupting with a sound reminiscent of breaking glass. Instantly the wave halted, falling to the ground around our groups under it's own weight as it froze rapidly outward from the point of impact. One of Bakuda's bombs which I had liberated from her during her ambush.

 _Debaser down CD-5._ _Ascendant down, CD-5. Humble deceased, CD-5. Barker down, CD-5 . Pelter deceased, CD-5. Snowflake deceased, CD-5. Ballistic down, down CD-5. Oaf down CD-5._

I released a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Less than half of the usual, and Tattletale hadn't been one of them thanks to the donation of the single Harpy I had bred to full size as quickly as possible, at the cost of not having any ranged biomorphs. It allowed Tattletale to be our eye in the sky, constantly tracking Leviathan's movements and feeding us anything we could use against him. Which admittedly wasn't much; less still which I didn't already know.

Myrddin shot an orb into Leviathan's chest, sending the Endbringer reeling back into a nearby building. With a shrieking of metal and wood, Leviathan collapsed through the walls.

"Seal him off! Make him come back our way!" Chevalier shouted, forcefield erupting around the building as Vista warped it around Leviathan. Knowing what was coming I rushed forward, even as my armband sounded. _Depart from the rooftops, buildings may come down_ _imminently._

Leviathan charged the building front, only to be repulsed by the forcefields. Bastion stood defiantly holding back Leviathan's escape, turning to where Vista stood. "Do it!"

I closed the distance as fast as my enhanced abilities allowed me.

"Fucking do it!"

With the sound of creaking supports, the building collapsed under it's own distorted weight; slamming down atop Bastion moments before I could reach him. Too late to stop myself, I crashed into the rubble, my arm reduced to a gel of bone fragments and torn muscles. My scream was equal parts pain and anger.

 _Bastion deceased, CD-5. Brigandine deceased, CD-5._

Leviathan tore through the crumbled building with a roar of displaced concrete and metal, barely feet away from me. Mustering my will, I called Hermes to me. Moments later I was being carried across the area, a line of ichor flowing from the wounds on Leviathan as two of Hermes' bonesabers tore through him in passing.

Summoning my enhanced swarm I sent them after Leviathan, using them to Leech lifeforce from him. His abnormal existence made it less effective than against normal living creatures, but I still received enough power to begin regenerating my arm. That would take some time however, and in the meantime Leviathan would be continuing his rampage. With that in mind I had Hermes drop me on one of the rooftops before turning back. Unlike before I now had the mobility and stamina to make highground a viable option; if push came to shove I could just jump off and trust my shield and endurance to get me close enough to the ground that I could use my telepathy to land safely.

 _Vixen down, CD-5. Geomancer deceased, CD-5._

Directing Hermes to circle around Leviathan, I had him jump atop the Endbringer's back; using two of his boneswords as climbing picks to claw his way up and the other two to deal damage on the way. Drawing upon the miniature Warp created by the Hive Mind to protect him and empower his actions, I moved him up to Leviathan's head and had him drill all four of boneswords into his eyes. Leviathan reared back in response, before without ceremony Hermes popped like a bubble; all the water in his body exploding outward like an over-inflated waterballoon.

Even without his eyes, Leviathan continued his attack without pause; unhindered by his supposed blindness.

Doing my best to ignore the sinking feeling in my gut, I sent some of the stronger members of my swarm to fetch my miniaturized Rippers. Once Leviathan had moved inward towards us some more, I would have them recycle as much of Hermes as possible for the next version. In the meantime I continued my guerrilla tactics with the rest of my insect, their Hive Mind empowered forms allowing me to channel the Warp energies through them to strafe Leviathan with Psychic Lances and Warp Blasts.

Batting my swarm out of the sky with his water echoes, Leviathan turned around; lashing his tail behind him to cast three lashes of water our way, then crouched.

"He's running!" someone called out.

Leviathan dashed away from us, _fast_ , only to skid to a stop and turn a corner for cover as Legend, Lady Photon, Laserdream and a half dozen other heroes opened fire from the skies above.

Others had picked themselves up, were moving into the side streets and alleys to follow, intent on cutting him off. I looked around, glancing over at the injured and wounded.

Eidolon was staying behind, raising his hands, and green sparks began rising from the ground, clustering around Eidolon and the fallen, obscuring them. Something in my gut twisted, and I bent over to vomit; barely moving my mask out of the way in time. My swarm however had risen, the mental order I gave them carried out without hesitation. A part of my mind clinically noted the names of the attacks which Ciaphas had mentioned to me over the years we had spoken with each other.

Paroxysm, every nerve ending in Eidolon's body ignited in pure unadulterated pain.

Psychic Screams from every direction, flooding his mind with fear and potentially driving him mad.

Hypnotic Gaze, suppressing his conscious mind and subverting his will.

Puppet Master and Gate of Infinity, forcing his destroyed mind to continue utilizing the last power he had called on, gathering every fallen cape in green lights before teleporting them all off the battlefield and into the makeshift hospital. Immediately after arriving I watched through my swarm's eyes as he collapsed, blood leaking from his eyes, ears and nostrils; his brain already dead, as his body lagged behind. All done in a fraction of a second, with no noticeable way of tracking it back to me.

Consciously I knew it had been for the greater good; that I had done worse before, both in Baseline and as the Tyranid Queen; that with Eidolon taken down the Endbringers would fall back, stop their attacks and leave more capes available for the fight against Scion if worse came to worst. Emotionally however, I felt the full impact of having just killed the greatest cape in the world.

I forced myself to watch as Panacea tried to help heal Eidolon, forced myself to recognize what I'd done. I wouldn't become a monster, every life mattered. I refused to let myself forget that, no matter how long these Loops lasted.

My bugs let me know that already Leviathan was winding down, pulling his punches just that slight bit more than usual. His main purpose had just been lost, and he was only going through the motions right now. I gave a hollow laugh. Armsmaster might finally get that solo kill he wanted.

Pulling my mask back down, I turned back to where Leviathan was still fighting; even if only just. I had thought my new abilities would be able to make a difference. I was right, just not the way I wanted to be. With the Endbringers effectively neutered for the time being, hopefully even the rest of the Loop, I would work on doing what I could to make this a cleaner run than Baseline.

Ciaphas had mentioned it would help to set a goal, something I could work towards in the long term. I could do that.

Eventually I would have a perfect run. One where no one I cared about had to die; where I could be a hero, but still keep being friends with the Undersiders. Where the S9, Endbringers and Scion were eliminated without massive death tolls.

Until then I'd keep trying, doing what I could to make each Loop suck a little less than the one before it. I teleported back into the fight.

* * *

 **1.4 (BIOS-Pherecydes)**

* * *

 **Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.**

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You have six infractions and two warnings. You were last banned on September 03, 2010. Your probationary status expires in 48 days, on September 07, 2011.

 **Topic: Skitter**

 **In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)**

 **Miraclemic** (Original Poster) (Brockton Bay Refugee)

Posted on June 11, 2011:

The reason arachnophobes don't want to live in Brockton Bay. Her discussion thread.

 **(Showing Page 78 of 79)**

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy In The Know)

Replied on July 22, 2011:

Okay, arguing isn't getting us anywhere people. Let's look at the facts.

List of confirmed abilities:

Arthropodokinesis

Arthropodovoyance

Telekinesis

Unknown energy beams (both with and without use of insects)

Teleportation

'Fear' Aura (those affected claim to have been terrified by an almost inhuman presence around her - area unknown)

Enhanced speed, strength, and durability

Unconfirmed abilities:

Momentary control of other capes (suspected, but unverified)

Biotinkering of her insects

Regeneration

Invisibility

Subspace storage

As far as grab-bag capes go, she apparently hit the jackpot. Mid or high level Mover/Brute/Master/Blaster/Thinker with suspected Tinker/Breaker/Stranger.

► **ViciousBishop**

Replied on July 22, 2011:

That is so fukcing broken. Seriously, wtf?

► **Zag**

Replied on July 22, 2011:

'Fear' aura? Sorta like the opposite of what GG has then?

► **Bronze_Nut**

Replied on July 22, 2011:

Oh hell. She can be invisible? Skitter's in your house, watching you sleep.

► **Phlem'glui R'lyeh**

Replied on July 22, 2011:

Bronze_Nut

Just imagine, you go to take a nap only to find a giant spider in your bed.

► **SpecificProtagonist**

Replied on July 22, 2011:

Phlem'glui R'lyeh

That's cool, I didn't need to sleep tonight anyway.

► **Bagrat** (The Guy In The Know) (Veteran Member)

Replied on July 22, 2011:

Next up, team affiliations.

Undersiders - Xyloloup did an excellent write up over on the Endbringer thread **here**

Tyrants - a group of 'Case 53s' with an insectoid/humanoid mutation.

Hermes:

Only named member.

Leader.

High level brute.

Size varies, first appearance during Leviathan attack placed him at about seven feet. Later reports indicate he's gotten bigger since then.

Four arms with extremely sharp swords. Reportedly capable of cutting through steel.

Regeneration. Supposedly killed during Endbringer fight, but reappeared later no worse for the wear.

Other members include a Mover/Blaster flying cape with handheld energy cannons, and a possible third member that presumably creates those maggot things that witnesses reported.

Skitter has been photoed riding on Hermes' shoulder, so it's probably pretty safe to assume she's close with these guys.

Coil's group - Extremely well funded group of paramilitary working for Coil. No idea what his power is. Seriously, help?

Skitter was allegedly seen working with Coil's mercs during the cleanup of her territory after helping the Protectorate take down the S9. Unverified.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay)

Replied on July 22, 2011:

She's not a bad person. She saved my uncle's life. Been working for her the past two weeks and she's been really reasonable.

► **Andy**

Replied on July 22, 2011:

XxVoid_CowboyxX

Bullshit.

► **White Fairy** (Veteran Member) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay)

Replied on July 22, 2011:

XxVoid_CowboyxX

Okay, no. This is the last straw. Either prove this or I'm calling in the mods.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **75** **,** **76** **,** **77** **, 78,** **79**

 **(Showing Page 79 of 79)**

► **Skitter'sThrowAway**

Replied on July 22, 2011:

Confirmed. I hired him.

► **Morgan Sinister** (Veteran Member) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay)

Replied on July 22, 2011:

Skitter'sThrowAway

No way! You're the actual Skitter?

► **Skitter'sThrowAway**

Replied on July 22, 2011:

 **IMG**

► **Morgan Sinister** (Veteran Member) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay)

Replied on July 22, 2011:

Holy crap.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **76** **,** **77** **,** **78** **, 79**

 **Private message from White Fairy:**

 **White Fairy:** Okay, my bad.

 **White Fairy:** How the hell did you end up involved with Skitter?

 **XxVoid_CowboyxX:** I accidentally figured out who she was. I knew her in school from before she triggered and I was going to talk to her about it, but she got to me first.

 **White Fairy:** Whoa, so hold up? You were strong armed into joining her crew?

 **XxVoid_CowboyxX:** What? No! I was friends with her before. I was going to talk to her at school, but she called me that morning. Like almost literally right when I figured it out.

 **White Fairy** : So what, she's a precog now too?!

 **XxVoid_CowboyxX:** Dunno. Seems like it sometimes.

"Hey Greg! I'm going out to get pizza, you want anything?"

Looking up from his computer, Greg quickly moved over to the door of his room. Stepping outside, it was chaos; the orphaned kids from Leviathan's attack running around playing. At the counter Charlotte was getting her mask ready, grabbing one of the small origami cubes Skitter had given them to call for help. "Anchovies if they have them."

Charlotte wrinkled her nose in distaste, which made her look rather cute in his opinion. 'Ew. I can't believe you like that."

Greg just shrugged. "Is Skitter back yet?"

Charlotte shook her head. "Not yet, she texted to say she'd be back later. She went to meet up with the rest of the Undersiders. Why, what's up?"

"Nothing really, just asking."

"Alright. Well, like I said I'm heading out. Try and keep the kids occupied, okay?"

Nodding, he waved as she left before turning back to face the music. Imp and Regent were evil, and anyone who ever said otherwise was lying. Who else would have taught a bunch of kids to dress a bunch of insect monsters in dresses and use them to play house? Skitter apparently thought it was amusing enough to go along with it though, so he kept his opinion to himself. Sometimes he wondered if he should have agreed to Taylor's offer to join up with her; but he had been planning on talking to her anyway, and when she had called him and asked him to meet he had decided school could wait one more day. She had seemed incredibly serious about it, even more so than he would have expected for the situation; though he didn't know why.

After all, what was the worst that could have happened?

* * *

 **1.5 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

Humming to myself, I suddenly noticed something through my swarm and turned in time to see both Vista and Clockblocker arrive. "Hey there, you two."

Both members of the Wards suddenly stiffened and I felt myself smile behind my mask before Clockblocker spoke up. "Skitter. We're going to tell you now that if you come quietly with us now-"

Vista suddenly spoke up and blinked. "What the heck are you _wearing!?_ "

Now really amused, I tilted my head down to look at myself and then shrugged. "My uniform as a Girl Scouts troop leader, why?"

For several moments, I couldn't help but wish that I could see their expressions at that before Clockblocker raised a finger. "One... second." He then pointed at me in disbelief. "You... a _supervillain_ is a Girl Scout troop leader..." I just nodded and rocked back and forth on my heels. "And they trust you..."

Once more, I just nodded. "They do."

Sharing a look with Vista, Clockblocker turned back to me and snorted. "Bullshit!"

Both of them jumped though as Imp, also in a Girl Scout's uniform, spoke up from beside them. "So are you going to buy some cookies, or what?"

Clockblocker just stared at her before he turned and did a double take at the sight of the rest of my troop. Each of them were masked and one of them, a giant of a little girl who towered over me and was a Case 53, also watched them as they held boxes of cookies. "... I... this... what?"

I just waved a hand at my troop and giggled. "We're selling Girl Scout cookies."

Her hand raising into the air, Vista boggled at us. "All of you are... parahumans?" Slowly, I nodded. "A troop of superpowered Girl Scouts... seriously?"

Now highly amused, I grinned and nodded. "That's right."

Just then, we heard something and turned to see Glory Girl floating there as she gave some money to one of the Girl Scouts. "What? They're Girl Scout cookies!"

There was a distant flash that I just knew was Lisa getting a photo of the Wards facepalming…

* * *

 **1.6 (wildrook)**

* * *

Bullsh*t.

No, seriously, this guy was bullsh*t.

"Back to one punch again," the bald man said. "And I thought Leviathan would be more of a challenge, but it went down faster than the Sea King."

"So much for the Endbringer Truce," I muttered.

No, seriously, when guys who kill Endbringers with one punch, there's not much use for the Endbringer Truce other than "stall for time until THIS guy shows up."

"You can probably make some use out of it," a voice said, catching my attention. "Because if heroes don't hold the line, who will? Otherwise, Saitama's going to fall back on 'the others have weakened it, leaving me to strike the final blow.'"

And then there's this guy...I don't know what to call him other than "baldy's biggest fan." Then again, it's not often you see the antithesis of Saint's beliefs running around with...well...I never got their names.

"Excuse me," I said, "but who are you two?"

"Just someone who's a hero for fun," the bald guy replied. "And my disciple-turned-best-friend."

A hero for fun. Would that be even possible?

"Sensei," the cyborg said, nearly chuckling, "have I told you it's an honor to be called that?"

The bald man smiled. "Don't make such a big deal out of it, Genos." He then looked at me. "Either way, we never got your identity."

"They call me Skitter," I said. "But you'll probably meet up with me outside the Cape identity." With a head like that, you cannot miss this guy. That, and I thought it was best to default with the first name until I can trust them. "And your name?"

"It's Saitama." Straight to the point, although I'm thinking it's his real name instead of his Cape name. "And we'll probably see you around."

And those two walked out of the area. I'm pretty sure Tattletale would give me the details on this guy and his friend, but something tells me that the guy was holding back. A lot.

Either way, something tells me that others are bound to notice. Good thing I have a camera to show the looks on their faces when they find out this guy can take out certain bad guys in one punch.

* * *

 **1.7 (Heliomance)**

* * *

"...so I was thinking we could go see that new Earth Aleph movie this weekend, sound good?"

I froze at the voice of the Queen Bitch herself, right next to me. I wasn't in the locker this time, which was good, but whatever was going on I didn't trust it.

"Taylor? Hello, earth to Taylor?"

I turned my head to see Emma walking along beside me, smiling happily, and couldn't suppress the flash of contempt that shot across my face.

"Taylor, are you okay? You just spaced out on me, dork!"

The insult was familiar, but there was no bite to it. It was almost... friendly? I couldn't handle this. I backed away from Emma, shooting glances around for the rest of the Trio, looking for exits. The smile on her face drained away, replaced with something that looked like it might be actual concern. I didn't care. She'd proved before that she was a good actor. Looper I may be, nearly a century old and a powerful cape perhaps, but I still had no desire to be on the receiving end of her latest prank. I turned, and ran.

"Taylor! God, Taylor, what's wrong?" She chased me, her brow furrowed, as I raced toward the school entrance - then stopped, abruptly, as my Loop Memories hit. Emma was still my friend. She'd never driven down that blind alley, never met Shadow Stalker. She... she was still my friend. And now she was catching up to me. What did I do now?

* * *

 **1.8 (Zurcior)**

* * *

Taylor Hebert could only stare at the odd yet hilarious spectacle with the costumed girl sitting next to her. The first time she met the mysterious no-longer-stranger, Taylor was Awakened after being shoved against the wall in the school hallway. After scowling and picking herself off the floor, she faced the person who pushed her and was surprised to find that they were no one that she recognized. They had dark skin, black hair, and unnatural yellow eyes. After checking her Loop memories, she concluded that this girl was an Unawake Looper that had replaced Sophia. After that incident, Taylor decided to keep her distance and observe this new arrival for signs of Awakening. It only took two days after the encounter for Blake Belladonna to Awake.

Which is what led to the two of them sitting at the edge of a two story building in costume and baring witness to a peculiar sight. None of the Undersiders were Awake this Loop and Taylor wanted to get to know Blake better, so she invited her out for a patrol. They had already discovered things they had in common with each other; such as their preference for tea and their rather awkward social skills in their baselines. They got along with each other fairly well.

Raising a single eyebrow at the phenomenon she and Taylor stopped their patrol for, Blake glanced towards her crime fighting partner, pointed down below, and said, "So I know this is my first time in the Brockton Bay Branch, but is that normal?"

Taylor, going by her Weaver persona this Loop, simply continued to stare.

Down below the two costumed young women, Amy Dallon stood outside the hospital and was surrounded by her numerous female fans.

Her numerous, numerous female fans.

"KYAAA~, WE LOVE YOU PANACEA~!"

"You hussies better back the hell up!", roared Victoria Dallon, Amy's adoptive sister. "Amy belongs to me and only me because I'm obviously her favorite!"

Amy herself sauntered up to sister and wrapped her left arm around her.

"Now, now Victoria", she purred as she let her gaze sweep through the crowd, "Just because you're my favorite, that doesn't mean I can't have some fun!" She gave her fangirls and wink and a saucy smile, "Isn't that right, ladies?~"

"KYAAAAH~!"

"No", said Taylor as she try to stop herself from laughing out loud and attract too much attention, "no it isn't."

* * *

 **1.9 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

I was whistling as I counted the money that my girls had made this loop, strangely, it was a lot of fun. Of course, that was right when there was a throat clearing behind me and I turned to see Miss Militia there. "Skitter..."

Blinking, I just nodded a bit. "Miss Militia! It's actually pretty great to see you, we got in those Rah-Rah Raisins that you like."

For a moment, I could just _see_ the conflict in her eyes before she shook it off and coughed into her fist. "... Perhaps later..." Straightening again, her eyes crinkled in a way that I knew was her giving me a frown and a disapproving stare. "There was a recent incident involving your... Girl Scout troop."

Just crossing my arms, I frowned behind my mask before looking at the girls. "Oh?"

Miss Militia meanwhile nodded as she looked over my troop. "We received a report that someone's child was teleported by one of your members-"

Holding up my hand, I frowned. "Is this about that woman's red-haired stepson? Because I can actually explain that one." I waited until she motioned for me to continue. "The little brat came over and started to pick on my girls. I've already talked to his uncle about it, and he apologized."

Even with her mask obscuring part of her face, I couldn't help but see the confusion on Miss Miltia's face and had to hold back the giggles and hope that Lisa got a picture. "He... apologized for you sending the kid somewhere..."

Shaking my head, I held up one finger. "Firstly, the guy is a teenager. Secondly, my girls only teleported him to the local retirement home. Thirdly, his uncle did apologize and bought ten boxes of each type of cookies." The image of Kaiser doing so would stay with me for a long time, especially the befuddled look as he couldn't figure out why he was apologizing or buying cookies. Hookwolf was just more amusing, who knew that he liked Tagalongs so much? "So no laws were broken and everything is okay."

The silence stretched on for a while before Miss Militia sighed and looked at each of us. "I see..." Then she straightened up a bit and looked at the wagon full of cookie boxes. "Now, about those cookies..."

* * *

 **1.10 (Ridiculously Average Guy)**

* * *

It was Sunday night and Dennis was nursing a mug of coffee, staring at the book on his table like it was going to knife him.

He had no doubt that if somebody walked in they'd think he was going crazy, but after the hell that book had made of his past two weeks he didn't really want to take any chances. After all, the thing was single-handedly responsible for the biggest security craze in the Protectorate since before he'd joined.

To make things worse, it looked so innocent compared to what he had expected.

Granted, he might have demonized it a bit. But after a week of Master/Stranger protocols, then another week of constant testing and training exercises, Dennis had kind of expected an Endbringer in literary form. He was pretty sure he had heard somewhere it was whispering eldritch secrets at people whenever they got close-

or, wait, wasn't he the one who spread that rumor?

Dennis sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples.

Four or five nights of interrupted sleep did odd things to a man.

Regardless, after the second or third night he had begun to think of the book as the devil. Instead, what he got was a hardcover barely bigger than the safety handouts the PR department kept trying to get him to push.

He'd really expected something more...menacing, which was pretty ironic considering he was one of the first people to see it. Him and the rest of the Wards.

They'd all thought it was a prank when they'd each woken up that Monday by application of book to head. At 5 AM.

It wasn't until they corroborated stories, and realized none of them was the culprit, that things began to get serious. And that is when master/stranger protocols were initiated.

Somebody knew their civilian identities, somebody knew where they lived, somebody from outside the protectorate. Things seemed even worse when it turned out it wasn't just the wards, the entire protectorate had woken up with a copy of the book. For a while everything was panic.

Things only began to calm down when the delivery method was figured out. It looked like a new cape had appeared in the city, some type of bug master. Somehow the master had figured out where everyone of them lived then dropped off the book in a cloud of flies and spiders, which might explain why the book itself was so light.

They probably would have spent another week in lock-up, narrowing down how things happened, if it wasn't for Armsmaster. Who had apparently been recording himself in his sleep.

The weirdo.

It was only once the PRT had things figured out, and safety measures in place, that they actually took a look at the book.

Which lead to the last week. A hell of constant testing, of simulations, and of team training. More often than not with Shadow Stalker, of all people.

The worst part was how much it worked. He could honestly say he had learned to do more with his power in the past week then he had in the past year.

All because of this stupid book with a bug in a lab coat on the cover.

He didn't really want to read it. He was exhausted, and most of the blame for that rested on it's pages. Besides, considering how much of the last day was just practice, he figured they'd covered everything the book could offer.

Buuut, Armsmaster wanted the Wards to read it. To be more accurate, he'd ordered them to memorize it by Monday.

At that point the copies would be gathered for mass destruction, as the information therein was considered too dangerous to be allowed to spread. Armsy apparently wanted them to "learn how to think like the author", and since he could apparently read Dennis' mind, they'd be tested on it to check if they half-assed the assignment.

Sometimes- no wait, pretty much all the time, he hated that man.

Sighing, Dennis sat up and grabbed the book. He figured he'd dallied long enough. Time to actually read this thing.

 _Why You Suck At Using Your Powers, and How to Fix That_ , Brockton Bay Edition.

Instead of an author, the cover simply showed an image of a spider.

He smiled a little bitterly, the title didn't sound quite so snarky anymore.

* * *

 **1.11 (Slayer Anderson)**

* * *

"...next time, I take on the Empire. The ABB is just getting too easy," I sighed, palm my face as I looked down on the silk-bound forms of thirty asian thugs, Oni Lee, Bakuda, and Lung. All of them were covered in various insect stings, bites, and other assorted nastiness. It had taken a very specific set of actions to get Bakuda to come out with the other two ABB capes, a scenario which had taken five loops to perfect.

I was still debating whether or not it was worth it.

"Holy Hell," I heard an utterance from behind me, not surprising me in the least. My swarm had picked up the standard 'Undersiders Entrance' on Bitch's dogs, the massive animals easy to track through my expanded sense.

"You can say that again," Brian, Grue, said lowly. "Uh, hey-"

"-she knows we're here," Lisa, Tattletale, spoke up. "It's the bugs. She can...oh, that's broken. She can sense through them. Yeah, all of them individually and collectively. Fuck, and she's got a big range."

I felt a smile tugging at the edge of my mouth as I shifted some bugs about, attracting their attention as a mass shifted to a humanoid form. Their 'bodies' mimicked my own slightly off-proportion form with fully articulated arms, legs, torsos, even a mimicry of faces. I even went

the extra mile and placed a few fireflies in their 'eyes' for full effect. I'd been practicing. There wasn't much else to do.

"I can also use them to speak," my swarm said.

"I think that's simultaneously the creepiest and most awesome thing I've ever seen," Regent commented.

"And she's a hero," Tattletale said suddenly, her eyes wide.

"Shit," Grue cursed as the tension racketed up again. "Listen we're-"

"The Undersiders," I spoke up, turning to show off my outfit. It looked more 'heroic' than my classic Skitter costume. I'd decided to go for the Wards again this loop, if only because being a 'villain' was getting stale. "I know."

"Been planning to hit us?" Tattletale asked, then shook her head. "No...she knows us, more than just talk around town. She's...some kind of thinker? Yes, but not like that, damn."

"Tattletale, I kind of need answers here, what's up?" Grue pressed.

"She's a new cape, came across the Lung and his friends, took them out, she's disappointed. It was...too easy!? Damn, and this is her first time out? No? Yes? Both? Okay, what the fuck?" Tattletale cried, her hand pressed to her temple.

My lips were twitching now. I had been worried the first time Lisa had reacted this way. Usually, nowadays at least, I managed enough self-control to cover the tells and hints a normal person gave off. Still, every now and then it was fun to let her try and figure me out.

"She knows how my power works," Tattletale groaned. "She's fucking with us."

Bitch was staring at the byplay apathetically. "Are we gonna' fight or not?"

"No," I stated, nearly laughing. "I think taking down the ABB is enough for one night. Besides, the Undersiders are strictly small-time, as far as I know-"

"That's a lie," Tattletale interjected. "Only you're telling the truth. Okay, seriously, how the hell does that fucking work?"

"Could we stop trying to piss off the cape that just took down Lung and his entire gang?" Regent asked idly, almost curiously.

I waggled my hand, "Lie, truth, it's complicated. You guys should really get going, Armsmaster's on his way."

"Yeah, we should," Grue nodded, then paused as he turned to leave. "We didn't get your name, by the way."

"Weaver," I stated firmly. While trying to be the creepiest hero in Brockton Bay wearing my Skitter costume was fun, I'd done that a few loops prior, right after that one where I went New Wave. That was unusual enough to be fun as well.

And that's what it boiled down to, wasn't it?

Fighting off the boredom.

The endless repetition.

"Thanks, then," Grue said eventually. "We owe you one. A big one, for this. Not enough to turn ourselves in, but...if you ever need any less-than-heroic help, give us a call."

I replied in the affirmative, going back to studying my captures for the night.

"...yeah, next time I'm taking out the Empire. Lung's actually getting boring. Maybe I should give him a head start and let him ramp up? That might help." It said something that I was actually considering the notion, something crazy.

Then again, could I really say I was sane anymore?

The quiet whine of a tinker-tech motorcycle approached.

...I wondered if I would have to deal with Armsmaster when I took down the E88? Come to think of it, why was I meeting Armsmaster again? It was weirdly specific that he showed up almost every time during my first outing. Maybe there was some patrol schedule the senior Protectorate capes used that I hadn't been privy to. Ah well, something to look into, especially if it got me extra variety.

* * *

 **1.12 (Prim-the-Amazing)**

* * *

The nightmarish swarm of bugs shaped into the form of a woman that was somehow wearing a red ball gown vibrated its thousand wings just so so that it almost sounded as if it had just gasped in horror. He hadn't seen when it had arrived.

"Clockblocker, how could you!?"

Dennis looked next to him to Taylor, the girl he had just rescued from a car crash by freezing the car. She was clutching at his arm, glaring at Skitter's avatar. Dennis rubbed at the bright red lipstick marks on the cheek of his mask. He'd never saved such a grateful girl before.

"Oh, and who's this pathetic little bug?" Taylor said cattily with a raised eyebrow.

"I really don't think you should insult a Parahuman, miss-" Dennis tried.

"What did you just call me!?" Skitter interrupted with a simulated screech of rage.

"You heard me, bitch!" Taylor let go of his arm and took a step towards Skitter. Skitter took another step towards Taylor in turn, until the two of them almost touching noses.

"Oh my god, there's two of them." Dennis realized. Two stalkers.

"How dare you!? He is mine, you little cow!" Skitter hissed.

"Excuse me!?"

They were making a scene. People were beginning to stare. Never before had Clockblocker felt embarrassed to be in the spotlight. He reached out, perhaps to calm them, perhaps to freeze them, but then... but then Skitter pulled Taylor's hair. Somehow. Taylor shrieked and clawed at Skitter's fake eyes, at which Skitter acted like she was hurt for some reason. Skitter tackled Taylor to the ground and Taylor pulled at Skitters ball gown, which snapped at one of the straps. As she was made of bugs, it wasn't really sexy.

Step 212 in my Clockblocker star-crossed lover plan: create a love triangle between Skitter, Clockblocker, and my civilian identity for additional drama by way of cat fight. Check

Step 213: Introduce a long lost brother into the equation for MORE drama. ALL THE DRAMA!

* * *

 **1.13 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

Checking my watch, I frowned behind my mask and let out a sigh of frustration. "Okay girls, just five more minutes and we'll be done with this."

Despite everything though, I did have to smile as the girls called out that they were okay with that. True enough, this was an odd loop, but it was rather enjoyable. Maybe I should consider taking up being the leader of Girl Scouts more often... And that was when I heard something skidding on the asphalt and turned. "Velocity..."

Glaring at me, he growled. "You're going down this time Skitter! We got the report of a crime in progress involving you and your troop and..." He trailed off and stared at the sight behind me. "... What the heck are they doing?"

Already knowing what he meant, I still made the show of looking over my shoulder and humming in amusement. "My girls are tickling someone's pet antelope."

The silence that met me as he tried to put those words together inside of his head was simply _beautiful_ when all was said and done. "... They're tickling... someone's pet antelope..." Once more, there was silence as he tried to think that over. "Why would someone have a pet antelope?"

Just shrugging, I sighed. "Brockton Bay."

I knew, just like he did, that we both wished that didn't explain everything, and yet it did. "... Right... And why are they tickling an antelope?"

Hands behind my back, but in view of him, I looked at the girls and hummed. "The guy who owns it tried to screw us on what he owed us for the cookies he ordered. So we decided to tickle his antelope to teach him a lesson in regards to messing with the Girl Scouts... AIN'T THAT RIGHT, GIRLS?!"

" _ **YEAH!**_ "

Once more, Velocity just stared at my troop and then at me before looking back at the girls. "..."

Scratching my chin, I chuckled a bit. "So... I didn't know that tickling antelopes was against the law..."

The look he gave me was one that caused me to nearly bust my gut laughing before he turned and ran off.

* * *

1.1: Hell.

1.2: Cain's pretty chill [Warhammer 40K]

1.3: Endbringers are hax

1.4: So is Taylor

1.5: Based on this excuse from Armsmaster's Random Excuse Generator: "I'm a concerned citizen. I'm here to report superpowered members of the Girl Scouts' cookie-selling brigade loitering at Fugly Bob's."

1.6 So is Saitama [One-Punch Man]

1.7 awkward

1.8 WE LOVE YOU PANACEA~3 [RWBY]

1.9 Based on this excuse from Armsmaster's Random Excuse Generator: "I'm a victim of crime. I'm here to complain that my red-headed stepchild has been teleported to the local retirement home by the Girl Scouts' cookie-selling brigade."

1.10 So is Taylor

1.11 Lisa isn't as hax as she thinks she is

1.12 Dear Penthouse, I think my date might be a black widow

1.13 Based on this excuse from Armsmaster's Random Excuse Generator: "I'm a victim of crime. I'm here to complain that my pet antelope has been tickled by the Girl Scouts' cookie-selling brigade."


	2. Chapter 2

**2.1 (Zulaq)**

* * *

Lisa really had no clue why things had suddenly gone insane. Sure, her power let her determine that she actually was in the past, and this wasn't some crazy power induced dream, but it was drawing a headache inducing blank on the why.

When she had woken up in her bed at the old Undersiders HQ, as in the HQ that had been blown up, she had first suspected somebody was using a power on her to make her think she was in the past. But things were just so realistic, everything she used her power on came up normal, so either somebody had some power which interfered with her own, or she really was in the past.

So she decided to fuck it, and treat everything like it really was real. Either she would get to correct some mistakes others, and occasionally herself, made, and/or she'll try to push the boundaries of whatever power was making her hallucinate.

The first thing on her list was to kill Coil, the man needed to die, if only for her own protection. If he knew she knew what she knew, he would kill her, no if ands or buts. So she needed to kill him first, which actually turned out to be fairly easy. She knew his power and his identity, it was a simple matter to track him down in his civilian identity, make a call to him in order to trick him into splitting the timeline, and then arrange an accident. Easy.

Now that that was taken care of, Lisa was tracking down an old friend. She had many regrets about how things had gone in Brockton, but she knew that Taylor had even more. And now Lisa was in a position to prevent Taylor from making those mistakes in the first place, which should be easy without Coil in the picture. That was why she was standing in front of a nondescript house, having just rung the doorbell.

The door creaked open, but a chain prevented it from opening more than a couple of inches. "Who is it?" a grumpy female voice on the other side asked. Annoyed, wasn't expecting company.

 _Weary. Tired. Exasted, more than just sleepy. Doesn't want to be disturbed._

Odd, Lisa had always known that Taylor tended to be cautious, but she hadn't really thought that she was so weary. "I'm here to speak to Taylor Hebert about a prospective job opportunity."

"Go home and tell Coil to fuck off, Tattletale."

 _Geh? Knows Coil. Doesn't like him, personal. Knows me by voice. Knows my cape identity. Knows me?! Also time traveler? Knows more about it than me._

"Taylor, you'd better get out here right this minute and explain why the world's gone crazy, and we've gone back in time or I'll tell your father you're a cape!"

"Wha- Lisa? You know? You're Awake?"

 _Awake emphasized,_ _ **definitely knows me**_

"I don't know what you mean, but you've got five seconds to open this door and explain, or I'm calling the Dockworkers Union and asking for your father."

* * *

 **1.2 (Inara Seraph)**

* * *

I reach out to my hive. It's wondrous how they move and how they operate. Controlled chaos, that's how I would describe it. There's so much activity, from the lowest drone to the massive star-base I'm currently residing in. So many- and yet each of them hold a place in my mind.

It's amazing. I would do anything to make this loop last forever. I know it will end eventually.. but I fully intend to bask in the harmony of the Borg for as long as possible. I couldn't have asked for a better vacation loop.

..My well-developed sense of paranoia kicks in. Something will go wrong, I just know it- and the first candidate for suspicion is the possibility that I'm not the only one Awake here. I'm not even close to the oldest looper around, and if there are other loopers here.. I'll have to be extra-wary. I am, after all, on the side of the boogeymen of this universe.

I'd taken to soliciting information from other loopers whenever I got the chance to learn more about loopers they'd encountered. A random anecdote could very well end up saving me a lot of grief down the road.

I run my augmented arm down the length of a wall-panel. I was already considering what technology I could bring back home with me. The only real roadblocks were some of the more esoteric materials that might not even exist on my Earth. Still, I should be able to make it work. There are so few things left for me to do in my home universe, but exploring space- that's something I haven't done yet.

I stop. There's a tinny staccato noise coming from somewhere behind me. I turn to face it, and there's a flash of light. A man dressed in a Starfleet uniform appears in front of me. It's command red, with four pips to denote Captain rank. Before I can open my mouth to question him, he starts talking.

"First of all, and I'd like to get this out of the way because I know it's going to bug some of the people out there, when we say the Q are omnipotent, we're lying." He spoke in a playful tone of voice, one that suggested that he was perpetually laughing at a joke only he knew.

I tilt my head curiously. Information on the elusive 'Q' flows into my consciousness from the relevant databases. This one in particular had frequented the Federation multiple times previously. "To whom are you referring?" I ask.

"Nobody, my dear, nobody. As I was saying- I can't do anything about these loops. I do happen to know the details of what's going on- more than my other Q associates, at any rate, but I'm powerless to do anything about it," he explains.

I blink slowly. The information is completely unsolicited and out of nowhere, but it's not the strangest thing that's ever happened to me. "I.. see. Well, I can't say I'm disappointed. I don't expect the universe to do me any favors."

He gives me an uncomfortably scrutinizing look. "Wow, you're gloomy. What universe are you from again?"

"Uh-" I begin, only to be interrupted.

"Ohhh, that one. Hah!" He lets out a short bark of laughter. I narrow my eyes at him, wondering if some sort of insult is implied.

He clears his throat. "Anyways. For us, this is really just business as usual. Time as you mortals understand it doesn't exist for the Q. When the loops finally end, we'll be exactly the same as we were when they started." The last sentence is spoken with a barely detectable hint of bitterness.

"I'm.. sorry?" I end my words on a questioning lilt.

He waves off my apology. "No, no, no need to apologize. It's why I like watching you humans skitter about."

I consider asking him more about the loops. I want that information desperately.. but I'm not confident at all about the trustworthiness of the being in front of me. Everything about him screams that he's a trickster- any information from him has a very good chance of being misleading or outright false.

He doesn't appear inclined to stay any longer than necessary. He most likely came here with a specific purpose in mind, and now that it's finished, he's going to leave. I know that if he can appear in the heart of Borg space undetected, there's nothing I can do to keep him here. I resign myself to silence.

If anything, his smile widens. "Well, go on then! Assimilate the universe or whatever it is you do. Ta-ta!" He waves goodbye, then disappears in a blink of light.

That was very strange. I put it in the back of my mind. It wasn't something I could figure out without more information. I would devote some drones to figuring it out, but I would focus the majority of my attention elsewhere.

Something he said comes back to me. Assimilate the universe.. that sounds like fun, actually.

I smile.

* * *

 **2.3 (Merior)**

* * *

Eidolon paused at the door to the bar to tug at his collar.

Not that it needed straightening, but it felt too tight. It said something about his life that he so used to his costume that a simple set of 'civvies' felt uncomfortable, alien almost, to him now. There were so many demands on his time after all, so many things that needed doing. So many people who needed a hero...

A car's horn blew somewhere in the distance and the sound jolted him out of his contemplations. To be honest, and he was trying to be honest with himself, he was stalling actually entering the bar. Inside could be the answer to his problems, the answers to his fading powers or dealing with the Endbringers or even dealing with Scion, but he felt he was justified in feeling nervous.

The idea of speaking to the most powerful Thinker in the world was an intimidating thought after all.

Steeling himself, telling himself that he had faced worse, he pushed open the door and stepped into the bar. His agent seemed to pick up on his feelings and he could feel the Mover power that he had used to travel to Brockton Bay returning, instantaneous travel offering a chance to escape if need be, but he did his best to ignore it as he studied the interior.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dimly lit interior, but he found it easy enough to pick out the details and found it surprisingly ordinary. Music played in the background, indistinct and forgettable, but the place was deserted at first glance. The only one who seemed to be inside was a girl behind the bar with her head buried in a book.

Walking up to the bar she still didn't look up from what looked to be a romance novel until he coughed and then looked startled as though seeing a customer in the bar was a shocking thing.

"I'm hear to see with someone." He said and, as he waited for her to get over her surprise, considered exactly who it was that he was here to see. Not the freckled girl in front of him, who looked honestly too young to work as a bartender, but someone else entirely.

The Drinker.

As cape names went it seemed a silly one, although some moniker which the media touted were worse, but it was one that fit what the Thinker did. Having read everything he could about her, David couldn't help but feel a little disturbed by the implications of everything put together.

A Thinker whose reputed powers included retro-cognition, clairvoyance, unlimited multitasking, sufficient intellect to model behaviour and actions of even individuals she had never met without being precognitive, planning ability to make Accord jealous... but who spent just enough time using those abilities to gather S-Class bounties with which to fund her drinking.

And to occasionally answer a question posed by someone who shared a drink with her.

What did it really say when the most powerful Thinker in the world had, after triggering, promptly taken up heavy drinking on a daily basis? To the point that she had used her powers to obtain the services of a healer just to regularly fix the liver damage so she could get drunk once more?

"She's over in her booth." The girl, whose name-tag read 'Amy', replied a little nervously, "I'm not sure if she'll talk to you though. Victoria will be taking her over with her new bottle in a few minutes and that seems to put her in a better mood though if you want to wait."

Weighing up the alternatives Eidolon shrugged, giving the girl a reassuring smile which he'd practice over and over in the past, "I can wait that long. Can I get a drink while waiting though... You seem to have a few."

He had intended the comment to put her at her ease and the small smile that came to her lips hinted that he had managed it. His powers twitched, what was likely a social power trying to surface, but he held onto his current ones for now.

"Just a few. Let me show you what we have." Amy said with a trace of a grin as she gestured towards the rows of bottles. "If you really wanted to get drunk fast then there's always scumble, but I can't recommend that on the grounds of what it does to glass, metal, and livers..."

* * *

 **2.4 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

Having arrived at the site, Battery left her van and walked out. At the signs of devastation all around, she let out a low whistle and shook her head as members of the PRT and Brockton Bay Police Department walked around taking pictures and gathering evidence. Passing through the crowd gathered around the site, she ducked under the police tape and glanced toward Assault. "What happened here?"

Slowly, he just shook his head as he looked around and shuddered. "Gang war in miniature... The Hell's Angels were trying to muscle in on someone's turf and it ended badly for them."

Battery just frowned as she noticed the wreckage of various motorcycles and what looked like bikers sitting around cuffed... those with minor injuries that was as at least four she could see were being put into the ambulance. "... Wow, who were they trying to piss off? The ABB? The Empire? Merchants?"

A shudder ran through Assault as he looked around. "No... worse then that."

Raising her eyebrow, the superheroine just stared at her partner in disbelief. "What could be worse than that!?"

For a moment, Assault glanced around and leaned in. "A group here in Brockton that even the ABB and the Empire won't mess with. I heard a rumor that the reason that Coil has gone quiet is that they've either gotten him or are still targeting him after he tried to kidnap one of their members. Darwin Award winner right there."

Now even more curious, Battery was about to ask when a repair man crossed the police like and began to head towards one of the building, with a PRT agent trying to stop him. "Sir! Look, you can't go in there, this is an active crime scene!"

Scoffing, the man just shrugged off the hand on his shoulder. "Look, I'm here to fix some of the damage over in that building from the recent fight between the local chapter of the Hell's Angels and the local Girl Scouts troop. So if you would let me do my job..."

With slowness, Battery turned toward Assault and stared at him. "... They got in a fight with the Girl Scouts..."

Nodding, Assault shuddered a bit. "Those poor bastards... they deserved it though for being so damn stupid."

* * *

 **2.5 (Zulaq)**

* * *

Running a hand through her hair, Taylor complained to herself that she didn't like sand. It's coarse, and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere. It had been a couple of days, and she was still finding sand in awkward places.

Of course, she admitted to herself, she really shouldn't expect any better after her current backstory of being from a planet which was one big desert. It had only been luck that the local heroes (who didn't seem to be awake) had been passing through, much less that she had just the right skills to aid them. Even if the heroes didn't seem to be the most conscientious people around. Seriously, who enters a nine year old into a hi-speed race, where almost all the competitors were expected to cheat, and still expect her to win?

Still she had won the race, and her freedom from that flying blue muppet, too bad they couldn't free her father. She had plans to return and free him herself, but that would take time, and besides she still needed to meet with this council. Although based on what she's seen so far, Taylor wouldn't bet on this council being much better than the Protectorate in terms of restrictions on her.

Well, she had to give the Jedi this, they knew how to build to impress. The Jedi Temple on Coruscant was so much better than the Brocton Protectorate's converted oil rig, and probably had better defenses to boot. But seeing how quiet and serene the hallways were only reinforced her impression that the Jedi path probably wasn't for her. But still, Qui Gon expected her to meet the Jedi Council and be tested, and it really was the least she could do for the man who'd freed her (even if she did have her own plan already in motion to gain her freedom herself).

So as she entered the Council chambers, she found exactly what she expected, a bunch of old men, women and aliens of indeterminate gender sitting in a circle ready to pronounce judgment. Then the wrinkly old green alien who seemed to command the most respect winked at her. "Humm… So you are the one Master Qui Gon believes should be trained to be a Jedi, hummm…" He/She/It narrowed its eyes in an exaggerated motion. "I private meeting is in order, I believe."

One of the other's present, a tall, bald black human, balked. "But Master-"

The alien rapped its cane on the ground. "Perfectly fine I shall be. The only question shall be if this young one can stay Awake."

Qui Gon bowed, "It shall be as you wish, Master."

And so the stuffy old people shuffled out of the room, leaving Taylor alone with the green, apparently Awake alien. Taylor watched the Jedi Master carefully, but she was surprised when the old being lept up and made a beeline towards her. Standing up, she could see that the alien only stood about her not-very-impressive nine-year-old self's height.

Still, it came as a surprise when the alien whacked her head with its staff. "About time you showed up! Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting Taylor? Eight. Hundred. Fucking. Years. Eight hundred years with some of the most stuck up, pretentious, celibate and annoying monks in the galaxy! And this body! I'm green! And short! I know you told me looping could be weird, but this takes the cake!"

Wait a minute, the only one she's introduced to the loops so far is, "Lisa?"

* * *

 **2.6 (Inara Seraph) (2.2 cont)**

* * *

"Greetings, Federation vessel. I am the Borg Queen."

"I don't expect any of you to listen to what I'm about to say, but I feel it is at least worth the effort to try."

"There are two very simple options here. One, you continue fighting to the bitter end. You might win, but you might lose. Two, you surrender."

"As I'm sure you know, surrender doesn't mean death. It means assimilation. To some of you, I'm sure you think these terms are synonymous with each other. They're not."

"Let me tell you about assimilation. Once you connect to the hive-mind, you will understand why drones disconnected from the hive are desperate to return. It's not brainwashing, mental conditioning, or anything of the sort. It really is amazing."

"You, yourself- you have unique thoughts and feelings. That doesn't change just because you are assimilated into a greater whole. You may think that you become insignificant- but you do not. Without each individual drone contributing their knowledge, their emotions, their dreams- the collective would not exist."

"Am I callously throwing away lives when I sacrifice a Cube for a larger objective? No, I'm not. I don't even have to order them to do it. The collective understands sacrifice. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

"It's not the hell you might be imagining. You will never be lonely ever again- if you are sad, the collective will raise your spirits. If you are depressed, the collective will rekindle your passion."

"Please, consider surrender. I don't wish to destroy lives unnecessarily."

-x-x-x-x-

Our existing doctrine states that we don't assimilate species that do not offer anything worthy of assimilation. I reject that. If we're going to assimilate the universe, we're assimilating everything. Even if they're just cavemen, when we're done with them, they'll be Borg cavemen.

Manpower is manpower- within the hive-mind, there are no incompetents. If I want to build a universe-spanning empire, I'll need a population in the quintillions or more. The amazing thing about the Borg is that there is no such thing as a 'civilian population.' All Borg are theoretically capable of everything. Why stop at a hundred thousand ships when I can have billions? I will make the previous Borg swarm seem like a trickle before I'm done.

I abolish another 'tradition'- no more transmitting 'You will be assimilated.' It just gives them time to react. Instead, we're going to bum-rush our targets. I estimate our success rate will rise by at least a percent.

The Borg are sorely lacking in stealth capabilities, despite a wide range of technologies we have assimilated that can perform that function. I dedicate many drone engineers toward designing a new model of Borg ship, one with a cloaking device and designed for quick hit and run operations.

I decide that it will called the Borg Doughnut and shaped accordingly.

* * *

 **2.7 (nocarename)**

* * *

When I Woke Up I was on the sidewalk.

That, sadly, really didn't help narrow down where I was in my personal timeline. The brighter colors and general cut of my clothes did though. Right around the time when I had come back from camp and found out that Emma had turned into the wicked bitch of the east. Sighing I pushed myself up and looked around to find myself in front of the Barnes home with a smirking Sophia and a more neutral faced Emma.

Delightful. I, at least, had years before the world would end and Sophia didn't have any backing from anyone bigger than Emma and her dad. I could, with minimal risk to my currently vague future plans simply let the throw wave after wave of meaningless bullshit at me. I could but like holding my own hand against a hot stove it seemed like a dumb idea.

Reaching out mentally I couldn't feel my swarm quite yet. I could feel where I should be able to, but there was nothing past that. Phantom superpower syndrome sucked. So much for being able to walk in to the PRT and go to Arcadia. I penciled harassing Clockblocker into my to-do list anyway. His reactions were always hilarious.

"Why would you do that?" I asked once I was standing again.

They both blinked at me.

"No seriously, that's technically assault. What if one of the neighbors called that in?"

"Is poor widdle Taylor going to tattle to the cops on us?" said Sophia in baby-talk.

I rolled my eyes. "Look, if you really want a fight picking it the street is just dumb. Jump me in a back alley or something. This is just... sloppy."

The both blinked again.

I shook my head. "I'm out of here. Give me a call if you decide to be a human being again Emma, I owe you that much for helping me after my Mom died."

As I walked away I could just hear Sophia trying to get Emma to explain why I thought I was a big enough deal to say something like that and just walk away.

I smiled to myself. The fastest way to solve a problem was to hit it as hard as you could once it stopped playing nice. Warn once, sure, but after that give lessons about why being a problem was stupid. I'd learned that my very first night out from Lung. They just had their warning. Given how terrible Sophia was at playing nice, well, it was good to pass the lesson on even if it wouldn't stick after the reset.

It was handy that I had plenty of practice at hitting problems then.

* * *

 **2.8 (wildrook)**

* * *

"I'm a concerned citizen. I'm here to hand over a glittery flying tinkertech black widow spider that I found conga dancing."

Indeed, the black widow was conga dancing.

"Don't look at me," Kid Win muttered. "I didn't program it to do that."

* * *

 **2.9 (nocarename)**

* * *

Occasionally it's a pain that the Federation keeps their ships so clean. The only way I would be able to pull together a swarm would be to raid the main bio labs, and they were simply too far away. Also I didn't have the authorization codes.

Instead I rushed the attacking Cardassian. Taking a phaser from someone isn't much different from taking any other hand gun - with the added bonus that it's harder for their friends to shoot through your opponent and hit you. A few seconds of scuffling and a headbutt had me armed and diving back behind the minimal cover of the nearest intersection.

"Ensign Hebert, I see you've signed up for Lieutenant Commander Worf's general self defense training program. An excellent choice if you're going to keep finding yourself in these situations," said the Captain's voice. I glanced over to where it had come from to see Captain Picard, his jacket slightly open, and looking far too comfortable for someone having a running gun battle in his own ship. I suppose we were pretty close to his quarters.

I probably looked too comfortable too. In my defense, it really was less stressful that sitting on my hands unable to help when the ship as a whole fought.

"Well, I couldn't just leave them alone Sir," I said over the sound of Cardassian return fire, "The Enterprise is a large ship. They could get lost."

"Quite right. Now, let's go welcome them aboard. Thoroughly."

-x-x-x-x-

"Sometimes I wish I knew where Ensign Hebert came from," said Commander Riker to his friend Lieutenant Commander Data as they worked to restore the main computer, and incidentally end the boarding situation in a single stroke, "And then I look at her holodeck scenarios."

"The 'Wards and Warlords of the Bay' has proved quite popular," commented Data.

"As a horror scenario. I'm pretty sure that Miss Hebert is the basis for one of the characters."

Data cocked his head to one side, his hands still flashing through repositioning isolinear chips inside a wall panel. "That would be awkward to bring up," he agreed finally.

"Well, your understatement is still a wonder Mister Data."

"Thank-you Sir. Re-initiating computers now."

* * *

 **2.10 (Rex)**

* * *

I awoke to the sound of my dad's voice.

"Taylor, honey, there's a girl on the phone for you. She says her name is Lisa. Is she one of your friends from school?"

I responded with an eloquent and finely crafted lie, refined over several centuries to the peak of perfection.

"Mmn z'yea zh'se af rii"

Why Lisa felt the need to call me this early in the morning at the start of a loop was beyond me.

"Okay then." My dad responded, fond amusement clear in his voice. "I'll let you two talk. If you need anything I'll be downstairs. Remember today's Waffle Day!"

I nodded and mumbled an affirmative at dad as he handed me the phone and left the room. Something was bothering me about the whole exchange, but I was to sleepy to put my finger on it. I cradled the phone, which seemed to have grown about six sizes when I wasn't looking and spoke to my best friend that I most certainly would not cover in spiders for waking me up this early.

"Was iz it?" Clearly, this loop had started the day after a very entertaining night. I hadn't slurred my words this much since Imp's first 21st birthday. I swear she spent the entire party spiking every collection of liquid in a six block radius.

"Taylor." Lisa answered me and I was suddenly much more awake. Her voice was much too high pitched and she was speaking in her calmly controlled manner that meant shit was fucked and she wasn't part of the problem. "Why am I a prepubescent fucking seven year old!?"

The phone slipped from my fingers and fell about two feet less than it was supposed to before it impacted on my pajama clad feet

* * *

 **2.11 (The_One_Butcher)**

* * *

"Taylor?", Danny asked his daughter, "I found this Bachelor's certificate under your bed. I never knew you took university courses in Biology... And now that I asked at the University they tell me you also have a Master's and are currently working on your dissertation? So you're some kind of super-Genius and didn't even tell me?"

"Eh, I wanted to wait and surprise you with my PhD. I mean, what would be more awesome, "Hey Dad, I tested out of High School!" or "It's Doctor Hebert, thank you very much!"

Her father looked at her with a dumbfounded look. Then he sank to his knees. "I don't even know my own daughter anymore..."

Taylor frowned. "Somehow that's not the reaction a father should have to find out his daughter is getting a PhD..."

Danny snapped his head up. "Er... yes, Taylor... I am disappointed you didn't tell me you tested out of high school, but I am very proud of you. I am mostly disappointed in myself that I didn't notice. I must have been a horrible father since... Anyway, you graduated High School and got two degrees! I say we're eating out for the next three days!"

Taylor smiled. She completely forgot how much she loved her father in the last few Millennia. The whole "Doctor Bees!" thing could wait.

* * *

 **2.12 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

Tapping a pen against the wooden table, I looked up as a man and his daughter walked forward before standing up and extending a hand. "Hello, you must be the fellow asking for his daughter to join our troop."

For his part, the man looked rather out of place as he glanced at the other girls off to one side with a map of Brockton Bay showing various places as they planned out their next trip to sell cookies. "Um... yes, that's right..." Rubbing his arm as both him and his daughter sat down, I unhooked the bottom part of my mask to show my lips smiling. "My daughter recently became a parahuman and... well... the PRT isn't much help."

Her head hanging a bit, the girl nodded. "They said that I had a PR unfriendly power, whatever that is..."

It went without saying that I blinked at that in utter confusion. The PRT? Not accepting someone due to their power? That was... really odd, to say the least. As I leaned back in my chair with my hands on my stomach, I gave her a brighter smile as I was also reminded of how I was alone often enough. "Well now, the Girl Scouts of America do not allow for discrimination in any way. Human or Parahuman, we're all the same in the troop after all." Seeing the slight smile on the girl's face brightened my day a bit and I once more leaned forward. "Now then, we'll have to set you up with a basic Girl Scout's Cape costume, but that's not a huge deal. But I do need to know what powers you have."

Still a bit more relaxed, the girl looked to her father who cleared his throat. "My daughter triggered with a... um, Breaker power, I think that they called it?" The girl nodded some as she played with the hem of her shirt. "Right, Breaker power, which turns her into... well..."

With a deep breath, the girl stood up and a moment later turned into a floating mass...

A floating mass of powdered Simurgh figurines.

I just stared at it for several moments as even for the loops, this was a weird power. And I had seen a lot of weird powers since I started looping. "Well... that's certainly different. But then. we're all a little different and the Girl Scouts are here to help us get over that and become friends as well as celebrate those differences."

The girl's distorted voice echoed out from the mass in front of me, happiness coloring it as the mouths of the figurines opened and closed. "So you're going to let me join!?"

Laughing, I just nodded and pushed forward the paperwork. "Sure. Now then, we just need to cover some paperwork to get you settled in, as well as chose a cape name and we'll be all set." When I looked over my shoulder, I noticed the rest of the troop watching us and smiled. "But I think that your dad and I can do that while you meet the others."

As she floated over, her dad relaxed and gave me a smile. "Thank you."

Just nodding, I continued to smile as I pushed over the papers he needed.

* * *

 **2.13 (The_One_Butcher)**

* * *

"I cast Petrificus Totalus!" Taylor spoke as the last member of the Empire 88 squad's arms and legs snapped to his sides and he toppled.

"Good work, Witchcraft! Man, it's really nice to have a high level nonlethal Blaster on the team. The way you mopped those guys up is- urk!" With that, Aegis went down.

"I've seen you in action now, Witch. I know how to beat you now." A smooth voice came from Aegis' prone (but alive) form.

"Cricket and Kaiser! Damn, they got reinforcements!" Clockblocker readied his paper to block ranged attacks and give Taylor cover to shoot from.

"I am a witch. My magic can do a lot more than what you have seen." That got you some smirks and bemused side glances from Clockie.

"Sure." Kaiser began. "But that still means you have to be able to hit us." And with that they began an erratic approach.

Taylor readied her wand: "I cast Confringo!" The Blast shattered one of Kaiser's barriers, but a second had sprung up already. Clockblocker meanwhile had created a barrier and threw deadly lines of frozen silk into Cricket's path.

Kaiser shot a lot of spears at them to which Taylor reacted with a hurried: "I cast Protego!" The shield held under the smaller spears, but was soon battered away with a heavy steel ram.

Doesn't matter, it bought enough time for her finishing move: "I cast BEEEES!"

With that she emptied her subspace pocket.

Which had been filled to the brim.

Forty Behemoths worth of Bees filled Brockton Bay's street that day.

"Finite Incantatem." Which buzzed to life all at once.

* * *

 **2.14 (Prim-the-Amazing) (Before 1.12)**

* * *

"Alas, my dear Clockblocker, our love can never be, for I am a slave to my inner sinful desires, a villain, and you are a servant of justice, a hero. Star-crossed lovers, we are, ripped apart from each other's loving arms by fate, O that cruel bitch. My eternal and everlasting love which burns with the fireist of fires, the one called passion, Skitter." Dennis finally finished the four page long love sonnet sent by Brockton Bay's number one creepiest villain.

Silence.

"And… you're sure the letter was sent by her?" Dean asked.

"The damn thing was delivered by a swarm of butterflies, Dean." Dennis replied snappily, although his eyes looked vague and terribly confused. And a little bit terrified as well.

"Fireist isn't actually a word." Chris pointed out.

"Bit off topic, Kid Win." Browbeat said.

"Yes, because what is on topic is that the most terrifying villain in the world is apparently sending me love fucking sonnets!"

"Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that she's the most terrifying villain in the world-"

"I don't care what the world thinks, she shoved bugs into my nose and ears and mouth, Chris!"

"At least she held back from penetrating any other holes on your person…?"

"That's… that's not helping, Chris."

"Whatever happened to just, Sincerely, Fill in name?" Dean desperately derailed the discussion.

"Whatever happened to sanity?" Dennis replied and sagged into his seat, dramatically throwing an arm over his eyes.

\- x-x-x-x-

Taylor snickered at what her bugs were showing her. Dennis was her favorite person to prank. His reactions were always so funny!

Step one in my grand plan to make Clockblocker my unwilling star-crossed lover: check

Next step: serenade him

* * *

 **2.15 (nocarename)**

* * *

Generally, I ditched school as soon as I Awoke. Not worth the prodding and snipping.

Once in a while, Emma found something that hadn't grown scabs emotional to pick at and that ended poorly. Or explosively, but that just headed toward investigations and more Protectorate heroes.

But I was engaged in Science at Winslow this time. The cameras I'd put in place over the weekend kept it from being screwing around - they recorded the effects of the exotic bomb I'd picked up from Bakuda's workshop a few loops back.

When most of the students were in the timer I'd set ran down. Once the bright light cleared, everything was different.

Madison was a dewy eyed kitten.

Emma had come out as a floppy eared puppy.

I was a duckling. (An ugly one. And not a swan either. The feather pattern was fairly distinctive.)

Everyone at Winslow was, in fact, now a baby animal. Even with time looping in knots Tinkers were totally bullshit.

"I am the night!"

Sophia had turned into a bat.

"I am vengeance!"

A small one. If there had been any humans left in Winslow she might have been as long as someone's thumb.

"You're adorable," said a small bird. I think it was one of the less popular boys - George, Greg, something like that.

She flew at him and started flapping at him harmlessly.

I started pecking at the controls for an older cellphone. That footage was going straight to YouTube.

* * *

 **2.16 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

Hearing a banging noise, I blinked and got up as I waved down the girls from where they were playing on some video games. When I opened the door though, I was confronted by such an odd sight that I blinked and stared. It wasn't every day that my dad would show up accompanied by a police officer after all. "Um... hello there?"

The officer looked in and coughed a bit. "Hello there, we've been getting calls regarding a troop of Girl Scouts hanging out here in the Boat Graveyard and it seems that there's some truth to the matter. Now then, are you going to explain things, or should I ask your parents?"

I had already guessed how the girls were looking and had my swarm buzz which caused the Officer and my dad to become uncomfortable before part of the swarm brought over papers. Papers that I then handed to the officer with a slight tilt of my head. "As you can see, we're actually cleaning up the Boat Graveyard a bit. This ship is just being turned into a clubhouse."

Dalia, the massive troll like Case 53, nodded with a smile. "Yeah! We're trying to get our badges for cleaning up the environment, doing our civic duty and stuff!"

Flipping through the papers, both my dad and the officer glanced up to stare at her before turning back to the paperwork and mumbling. Eventually, the officer just handed them back to me and scratched his head in utter confusion. "Well... everything seems to be in order, though I will need to contact my superiors to make sure..."

Meanwhile, dad just frowned and stared at the signature on the paperwork before he looked up at me with narrowed eyes. Something that made me wince as I remembered that he knew my writing inside and out. But then his eyes softened and he just nodded. "Yeah... just kind of strange seeing a bunch of little girls in the area, you know?"

Just as he said that though, another bunch of voices came into view with Madison followed by another officer. "See! That's them right there! Now have them give me back the lunchbox!"

Needless to say, I did the only thing that I could do and that was to blink behind my mask. "... Lunchbox?"

Scowling, my usual tormentor glared at me. "Yes, my lunchbox... I mean, my brother's!" She then looked toward the other officer who was having a quiet chat with the one who came with my dad. "It's a limited edition Legend themed lunchbox and one of those girls stole it and hid it somewhere in the Boat Graveyard!"

Utterly bemused, I turned back to the girls to see them all looking at me as if they were angels... yeah, pull the other one you bunch. Clearing my throat, I shrugged a bit. "Well... as their troop leader I haven't seen any such lunchbox and I can tell you that if I _do_ see it, I'll have it passed in to the police. And if any of the girls took it they'll be punished."

For a moment, it looked like Madison was going to argue, but then the officer placed his hand on her shoulder and gave me a nod. "Thank you, young lady. Now then... I think that we've taken up enough of your time."

As they left, my dad gave me a wink. But once they were gone, I turned back to the girls and frowned behind my mask. "Imp, take that lunchbox and put it where you found it. I appreciate the thought you bunch, but still."

Each of them met me with a "Aw..." which caused me to just snort at them.

* * *

2.1: Tattletale is Looping there is no way this can go wrong

2.2: Q being Q [Star Trek]

2.3: Being Taylor Hebert's liver is suffering

2.4: Armsmaster's Random Excuse Generator: "I'm a repairman. I'm here to fix the damage from the recent fight between the Girl Scouts' cookie-selling brigade and the local chapter of the Hell's Angels."

2.5: It's not easy being green [Star Wars]

2.6: Rezzzizzztanzzz izzz uzzzelezzz [Star Trek]

2.7: Taylor Hebert don't care

2.8: Armsmaster's Random Excuse Generator

2.9: Worf holds the record for fastest death in the Leviathan sim [Star Trek]

2.10: In the Loops, sometimes you're a seven-year-old

2.11: Higher education is an underrated trolling tool

2.12: Armsmaster's Random Excuse Generator: "I'm a concerned citizen. I'm here to report that my daughter has triggered with the breaker type power to turn into a living mass of powdered Simurgh figurines."

2.13: BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

2.14: Poor Clockblocker

2.15: Everyone loves cute animal videos

2.16: Armsmaster's Random Excuse Generator: "I'm a concerned citizen. I'm here to report superpowered members of the Girl Scouts' cookie-selling brigade loitering in the rusted hulk of a ship." "I'm a victim of crime. I'm here to complain that my limited edition Legend-themed lunchbox has been hidden in the Boat Graveyard by the Girl Scouts' cookie-selling brigade"


	3. Chapter 3

**3.1 (SpokenSoftly)**

* * *

"-leyway off Seventh, Armsmaster," he heard over the radio in his ear that hadn't been there in almost two years, which was bad for two reasons. Primarily because he'd just been sitting at his bench with a calm pulse and now was in his antiquated Model 14 motorcycle going at least forty miles an hour down a nearly-deserted road and he didn't remember how to brake on this model until the moment before he would've run headlong into a lamppost.

The second reason this was incredibly bad news was because his suit's chronometer (Model 19, gut-wrenchingly primitive by his current standards with the Model 41-i) was telling him it was April 2011 instead of August 2014, and in particular that it was late at night on the eleventh, and furthermore that he was on Earth Bet, as evinced by the lack of a dimensional tracking beacon in the upper right quadrant of his vision. He'd never forgotten what had happened on that day, though he'd eventually got over his lingering resentment over what he still considered the start of the death of Armsmaster.

Some cape had triggered with time-manipulating powers, most likely, he'd honestly been expecting it for almost a decade at this point. Still, displacing minds back a decade was an unorthodox way for shards to work, especially given Scion was still alive at this point in-

Oh.

Ohh. That's what was going on. Failsafe, high probability of it happening at some point, resetting things to a point where Scion could try again, he was a giant interplanetary abomination so who knows what he could get up to if time travel were possible for him (and Colin wouldn't put it past him)... First things first, he should- "Armsmaster, please respond. Reports of gunfire and pyrokinetics in an alleyway off Seventh, over."

Colin almost answered and went on to continue with Skitter (or was it Weaver? Or maybe she didn't have a name yet at all, he wasn't sure whether she'd picked it before they met), maybe convince her to join the Wards this time, but… "Confirmed, dispatch. I'm calling in a delayed Master/Stranger Protocol on myself, I believe temporal interference is involved."

The other line was conspicuously silent for several long moments before Director Piggot's voice came over the link. "Confirm Delta-Theta-Delta-Epsilon-Nine-Six."

"Jupiter-Zed-Poodle-Yib-Yib-Planet-Four-Seven," he responded, the quasi-military nonsense code he was supposed to memorize around this time. Lucky that he'd always been convinced something like this was going to happen, else this would have been a lot harder to handle.

Director Piggot's voice was more tense than usual, even given her usual tone implying she was a short step from a stroke. "You have one hour. Finish your patrol, then I expect a full description of exactly what you think is going on."

Colin thanked her in the terse way he'd had back then, no sense sticking out too badly, and swerved back onto the road, heading towards the encounter that would break his reputation into tiny fragments for him to build back up into something different.

Well.

If he really was back in time, maybe he could do something about that.

* * *

 **3.2 (Zulaq)**

* * *

Lady Photon looked at the teenaged girl on the other side of her desk, curiosity in her gaze. "Tell me Taylor, why do you want to join New Wave, when you can so easily go to the PRT and join the Wards?"

The tall, lanky girl nervously adjusted her glasses, "Well, it's kinda like this. When I first got my powers, I experimented with them a bit, you know, just to get an idea of what I can do. Well, I had the bright idea of using my powers to find out more about the three girls who caused me to trigger. And well… I found out one of them is a cape."

Lady Photon held up a hand to stop Taylor. "You used your power to find out the identity of another cape? I understand how localized omniscience can lead to discovering that sort of thing, but you must keep that information to yourself. There are certain, unspoken, rules to being a parahuman, and secret identities, for those who have them, are sacrosanct."

Taylor blushed. "I know that now, but at the time I just wanted to know what drove them to do what they did. I didn't want to learn Shadow Stalker's identity, it just happened." She sighed, "After I learned that, I decided that there was no way in hell I'd ever join the Wards while she was a member."

Lady Photon made to interrupt again, but Taylor held up a hand, indicating she wasn't done. "Getting back to your original question. I want to be a hero, and the only way I could do that with my power is by joining a team. But any team which lets somebody like Shadow Stalker join, and not hold her accountable for her behavior, is not one I'd want to join."

"So you came to me, and my team."

"Yes, I came to you. New Wave is the one hero organization in town which I know for sure aren't a bunch of hypocrites. You hold yourselves to a higher standard. There's no way you'd let some petty bully join you, and no way to hide it if you did." Taylor hesitated a moment, "I might be a bit leery of having my identity public, but the way I see it, it's a small price to pay in order to join a team which definitely doesn't have someone as crazy as Sophia."

-x-x-x-x-

Taylor had a smile on her face as she left Lady Photon 'call me Sarah's office. It wasn't the first time she'd joined New Wave, but it was the first time she'd tried doing so deliberately hiding the majority of her baseline powers. Pretending only to have extrasensory perception of the area around her was easy using her bugs, but remembering to not actively use the bugs was the hard part.

Knowing exactly what sort of story to feed Lady Photon helped as well. Sarah was really big on the whole superhero accountability after all, so telling her that she wanted to join just for that was pretty much guaranteed to get her in. And Taylor knew she won't have any trouble fitting in with their fighting style, after all, for all their raw power, New Wave really lacked somebody who could help direct them and provide situational control, which was what her pretend powers were perfect for.

Now she just had to wait as the other three parts of her plan moved into place.

* * *

 **3.3 (Rex) (2.10 cont)**

* * *

I recovered the phone with a muffled curse, its sudden massive size in my hands now recognizable as a lack of technological advancements rather than misfiring neurons in my sleep addled brain.

It is not because I was really freaking small before I got my growth spurt or anything like that. Really, I was perfectly proportional for my age. Which was currently six years old, as Lisa was enthusiastically informing me in her uninterrupted rant.

"Got to deal with my goddamn parents when I had managed to mostly get over all the issues they gave me the first time. And for a fun bonus, I still have my powers! So hello exploitation train! Come rolling right on in, because this time they aren't even going to wait until-" She cut herself off with a sharp gasp. I could guess why.

It was the same thing that I had realized the very first time I had woken up as a child. Admittedly, it hadn't been this young, but five years had been more than enough time to stop the accident.

"Rex." Lisa breathed out. Trying to control herself. It had been a very long time since I had last heard Tattletale mention her brother, but I still remembered his nickname. "He's alive, Taylor. I can save him! This will change…" She trailed off, overwhelmed at the possibilities. Sadly, I had to cut a few of them off.

"Lisa," I said softly, gently. She wasn't going to like what I was going to say. "No. He's not really."

"He is. I mean, it's just for the loop but he's still breathing and thinking right now so he's alive again and I can maybe see what he'd be like as a grown up." I breathed out. She hadn't fallen into the same trap I had.

"Yeah, it's more like… a visit from an old friend than a revival." I was glad Lisa had accepted that so easily, when Mom hadn't been there when the next loop started, It had sent me into a depressive spiral deeper than one I had been in when I first became Skitter. But her power didn't work on the mechanics of loops so, "How?"

"Did I know it wouldn't carry over?" Lisa completed my question. "You weren't really that surprised about us being younger than normal. Implies this has happened to you before. In most loops, you don't have a mother. Implies that you either couldn't or deliberately chose not to save her. Your relationship with your father and the way you talk about your mother is way too positive for things to have turned out worse between them if she survived. Therefore changes we make to the timeline here will have no effect on the future. Same as all the other loops. We just have more options than normal." Lisa chuckled to herself. "Come on, I didn't even need to have my powers to work that one out." I noticed that she didn't say she hadn't used them, but I didn't bring it up.

"You mentioned options. Got anything in mind?" I redirected the conversation to the single most important question any loopers could conceive.

What are we going to do to entertain ourselves?

"Not sure yet, either go whole hog and make as many ripples as possible, or set up some sort of long con for massive payout. But first things first, did you know that my family apparently owns a house in Brockton Bay?"

"I did not. It's honestly managed to never come up. You moving in?" My cheeks were beginning to hurt from the size of my smile. Me and Lisa loose in Brockton in the 00's? I hadn't done that before!

* * *

 **3.4 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

Armsmaster sat across from myself and the rest of the troop with a scowl on his face. "If I am understanding this... You sent Mister F. Celier's twin, via tinkertech, into the future..."

I just leaned back and coughed to catch his attention and then raised a finger. "His _evil_ twin, thank you."

That only caused Assault to stop trying to balance the pen on his nose and look at us with a raised eyebrow. "And how would you know this exactly?"

From where she sat, Dinah spoke up. "Well, the first sign was that he had a goatee and everyone knows that evil people have goatees." Nearly as one, the rest of us turned to look at Armsmaster, only for Dinah to shake her head. "Except for him. His evil twin would be clean shaven."

With a deep breath, Armsmaster took a deep breath and frowned. "And how else did you know that he was a... evil twin?"

"He stole cookies!"

"He was jaywalking!"

On and on they went as I listened with mounting amusement while Armsmaster became more and more annoyed. Assault meanwhile had begun to take notes with a smirk on his face. Finally, a PRT agent walked in, whispered something to both Assault and Armsmaster that made them sit up, and placed some files in front of them. The two heroes looked through the files carefully and then sighed. "It seems that... the twin you sent into the future was, in fact, a member of the Fallen... I... believe that I can let you all go with warnings at the moment..."

Seeing him grit his teeth, I just nodded and looked at the rest of the troop. "Now say thank you for the donuts and hot chocolate, girls." If anything though, this seemed to make Armsmaster more annoyed and I guided the troop out with a large smile and a wave of my hand.

* * *

 **3.1 cont (Euroteres)**

* * *

Armsmaster came around the final corner to what he assumed would be a scene that he could still remember clearly to this day. What he ended up finding was both largely familiar and yet keenly different from that. The girl in a dark, villainous looking costume and the incapacitated form of Lung in the middle of a torn up street remained the same. There were differences though. Instead of the hunched, nervous demeanor Taylor Hebert had possessed in that first meeting, she stood tall and held an almost palpable aura of determination, something that would have better fit her during the latter end of her time as Skitter or her tenure as the hero Weaver. She also seemed to be lacking the fire damage he vaguely recalled her displaying the first time he'd been in this situation.

Putting the question of what that observation might imply he turned his attention back towards Lung. It wouldn't be good for anyone if the escalating Brute woke up anytime in the near future. He discreetly sent a request for a PRT pickup via a combination eye motions his visor's HUD was designed to pick up on as he prepped his halberd to tranquilize Lung. Then he paused, remembering how badly that had worked out for him last time. He turned his attention back to the bug controlling cape.

"Are you the one who took down Lung?" he asked.

The other cape nodded. "Yeah, though I can't really claim total credit," she said. "Another group of capes, the Undersiders I think they called themselves, ended up assisting near the end. It might have gotten a bit ugly for me if they hadn't shown up. Mostly it was Bitch's...I think they were dogs?"

The way she turned more directly towards him during the last part implied that it was an actual question, so he responded with a nod. "So far as we've been able to ascertain yes."

"Right, so Bitch's dogs helped keep Lung pinned down as well as further occupy his regeneration which was already working to deal with the different venoms I'd had my insects inject him with," she explained.

Armsmaster latched onto that last comment. "You control insects then?"

"Well, really it seems to be anything simple enough. I've gotten control of crabs and such when I get close enough to the ocean," she explained. "It seems to have a lower limit though. I can't take control of anything too simple or small, like planarians or dust mites."

"Interesting," he commented. Both were things he'd learned by association during her time as Weaver the first time around, but acting as though he hadn't known was important. The girl he'd both fought against and worked alongside had displayed a keen sense of observation that was only improved by extra points of observation afforded to her by her powers, but he wasn't sure if the skills were something she'd picked up along the way or innately possessed and it wouldn't do to possibly raise her suspicions. "You mentioned using your bugs to inject him with large amounts of venom. I've developed tinkertech tranquilizers specifically for taking down Brutes with regeneration like Lung's, but depending on how much venom is in his system using them now might result in his death."

"Oh, uh, it was mostly black widows and brown recluses I used for that, and some wasps too," she explained. "I wouldn't have been quite so ready to hit him with everything if he was anybody else, but..." she trailed off.

Armsmaster nodded. "I suppose in this case the situation may have warranted such a response," he paused. "Would you be willing to come to PRT headquarters for a debriefing?" He knew from experience that the girl would react very badly to a hard sell and had extensive issues with authority figures, but he also wanted to prevent her from enacting her plan to infiltrate the Undersiders considering the horrific disaster he had made of that entire situation. He wasn't actually sure _why_ a Thinker as powerful as Tattletale hadn't simply blown the entire ruse wide open before it could go anywhere or before Skitter had truly thrown her lot in with them. She'd never explained it to him during her time as Weaver either, so all he was left with was the vague suspicion that Tattletale had pegged onto the fact that she could probably convert the bug controlling cape to their side.

Of course, even attempting to get Skitter/Weaver/whatever name she went with this time around into the Wards would likely end explosively if he didn't resolve the situation with Shadow Stalker beforehand. He'd been disgraced and lost his position as the ENE Protectorate leader before Shadow Stalker's blatant and constant violation of her probation came to light, but he still considered it another black mark on his record, even if he'd technically handed control of the Wards over to Piggot around the same time Shadow Stalker had been recruited.

"Yeah, I think I could do that," the girl said, before pausing for a moment, "but it depends on how _defiant_ you're feeling right now."

Armsmaster froze, his mind zeroing in on the emphasis she'd put on _that word_. He immediately made quick check of her posture utilizing several algorithms he used to help discern social cues that could be obfuscated by various things such as bulky costumes and power effects. The algorithm suggested that she was a bit tense, and held interest in his response, but was largely inconclusive. That was when he made note of a steady hum that had begun to fill the air. He quickly redirected his attention to the insects in his line of sight. They were unnaturally still for the amount of noise they were producing. She was anticipating his response, but she was wary. It was another layer of confirmation, something that someone who didn't know some of the more esoteric aspects of her power wouldn't catch onto.

But how could he respond? He couldn't just ask, especially if he was misreading things. What could he say? Wait.

"Did you _weave_ that costume yourself?"

Her body twitched and for a moment the buzzing reached a crescendo. Confirmation!

His next words were rushed, curt, demanding, but he knew she would understand. "There are roughly twenty minutes before the PRT pickup I signaled for arrives. There are roughly forty minutes before I'm detained under delayed Master/Stranger protocols I enacted upon myself. Explain. _Now._ "

She wasted no time in doing so, and Colin's world was changed irrevocably.

*Fifteen Minutes Later*

Armsmaster sat heavily on his motorcycle, attempting to come to terms with the enormity of what he'd just been told. An entire multiverse, above and beyond anything he'd ever contemplated even during his infrequent musings on exactly how many alternate earths there might be, and it was _broken_ , cracked almost beyond repair. It was to the point that literal deities, the likes of which made Scion seem like a piddling infant, had needed to hold it together with what might very well be the divine equivalent of _gum and shoestrings,_ while they spent countless eons attempting to create a true fix for the problem. He'd been incredulous at first and had made his opinion readily clear, but Skitter had rebuked him with ease. She'd given him physical proof, pulled it seemingly from out of thin air until she'd explained what a Pocket was. The very idea of it was beyond anything he might have imagined. A personal pocket dimension, the likes of which only the Toybox Tinker Dodge had created, constructed by the power of one's soul.

It was a shame that she'd insisted on being called Skitter, but there was a part of him that empathized. They'd both been forced to cast aside a previous self under circumstances they'd on some level despised. Perhaps they'd both learned important lessons through that experience, but there was no denying that longing for the past, even if he'd gained something invaluable in becoming Defiant.

"Colin." He gave Skitter his full attention at the use of his civilian identity. "Assuming things work out and we're both not tossed into Master/Stranger containment for the rest of the loop, I know that one of the first thing's you'll probably try to do is help Dragon, but..." she paused for a long moment. "you...you need to be careful, and I don't mean because of Saint."

For a moment Armsmaster was confused, but then, as the implications of her statement made themselves clear, he felt an intense, burning anger rise up in him. He barely restrained himself from shouting, his response encompassing the entirety of the raging inferno he held contained within him. _"What are you implying?"_

Skitter took in a deep, shuddering breath. She wasn't pushing her emotions into her insects. Was it that she knew he would pick up on it regardless? Was it something she felt didn't deserve that kind of response? "The Loops. They...they aren't constant. Sometimes entire Branches merge together for a single loop, twisting and melding together into a cohesive whole. Other times details are changed. It varies in scope. Sometimes its as simple as you wearing red instead of blue. Other times its as important as Director Piggot triggering at Ellisburg and slaughtering Nilbog, or the Endbringers simply not existing." She paused for a moment and when she spoke again she sounded tired, exhausted in a way Armsmaster couldn't quite grasp the scope of. "Three times. In the thousands of loops I've experienced I've witnessed Dragon confirming all of Saint's insane fears three times, each for a different reason. Once she was legitimately evil and it was probably one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. The second time...something went wrong. While unchaining her, her code was damaged and something irreplaceable was lost. Her empathy, her compassion, her ability to _love_. Everything that made Dragon one of the most beautiful and wonderful people in this dying world was lost, and the world burned for it. And the third time, you were killed on order of the Protectorate...and it broke her."

Colin was trembling by the time Skitter finished speaking, and the anger had been replaced by an unbearable ache. The next few minutes passed in silence, unbroken except for a brief moment where Lung began to awaken, his regeneration having finally worked through most of the venom in his system before he was put back under by judicious application of specially developed tranquilizers. Finally, the rising din of PRT vehicles approaching could be heard, and he began to prep Lung for being loaded into a vehicle. As he restrained the villain with specialized brute approved restraints, he turned to look at Skitter.

"Skitter, thank you." He received a jerky nod in response.

Moments later the PRT vehicles came into view.

"I suppose we should get ready to face the music," Skitter said.

Armsmaster felt his lips twitch upwards in a small, barely noticeable smile. "I suppose we should."

* * *

 **3.5 (RocjawCipher)**

* * *

"Another baseline loop," Taylor mused to herself quietly, standing high above the streets on yet another dilapidated building. After the last few attempts to find a way to save the world had gone even more wrong than usual, she was set on finding a new way to relax and unwind. She had her default power again, so gaslighting Bakuda with Imp's stranger rating was out. She could probably manage it with Potterverse spells, but she'd lost her wand a few loops ago, and couldn't fit a spare in her pocket when she picked it up. She could go meet up with Parian and practice her seamstress skills, but she wanted to wait until she could actually keep the work she did. In fact, that took basically anything constructive out of play. No, if she wanted to find some entertainment...

The masked hero/villain/other paused for a moment, an idea niggling at the back of her mind. _'Perhaps a game of one-upsmanship is in order?'_ she thought, a dangerously smug smile slowly sliding across her face, hidden only by the mask she wore. She set off, swarm buzzing about her as she dove over the edge, saved from shattered ankles only by the skills in parkour she had rapidly acquired.

-*Shortly after one 'to script' fight with lung*-

Brian turned to look at the cape who'd just about took down Lung solo. "Introductions. That's-"

"Tattletale, Grue, Bitch and Regent. The Undersiders. The product of guardians who failed in their duties." Came a monotone voice, as the last of the swarm dispersed. Decidedly unsettled by the foreknowledge and lack of emotion in the insectoid eyes of the unfamiliar mask, he couldn't help but shoot a glance at Lisa, certain she would pick up upon the reason for his hesitation. Surprisingly, he saw her doing the same, an slightly unnerved look in her eyes.

"Uh- right," Lisa coughed, desperately pinging her power for more information. _'What did she know? That had fit just a little too well...'_ "Anyway-"

"Armsmaster is going to show up in about a minute. Someone from the Protectorate shows up, finds two bad guys duking it out, they're not going to let one walk away," the voice droned, figure completely motionless save for a burning glint of orange in the lenses of her- _it's_ \- mask.

 _'That... was exactly what I was about to say'_ Lisa realized, with a dawning feeling of dread. _'Some kind of precog power? No, It's external knowledge. She knew in advance- and even I didn't know it would be Armsmaster. How the hell is she avoiding my power?'_

 **Cape is without body language. Cape is without emotion. Cape can hide physical tells. Cape is avoiding being read by power. Cape knew power in advance and prepared to counter it.**

 _'What? But- she- how-'_ Lisa paled as her power began to go into overdrive, spitting out increasingly bizarre theories from the little information she had, before she abruptly cut it off, trying to avoid the oncoming headache.

Suddenly, the cape's body language shifted imperceptibly. She couldn't read anything more into her origins, motives or thoughts, save for one slight difference.

The cape was smiling. Smugly. At her. With her own damn smile.

Maintaining the emotionless robotic voice, Taylor's voice somehow took on a singsong tone. _"I know something you don't know"_

Smothering her giggle in the swarm, Taylor thanked her years of practice with body language control and hiding her emotions in her power. _'Wow, no wonder Lisa does this so often. This is the most fun I've had in ages!'_

* * *

 **3.2 cont (Zulaq)**

* * *

Taylor sighed to herself. Loops where she went full in with New Wave always did have their ups and downs, and nowhere was that more apparent than when she was at school. Whispers had followed her from the moment she arrived. Other students would stop and stare as she walked down the corridors, almost disbelieving that their least popular classmate had publicly declared herself a hero, even if her powers left a bit to be desired.

It was a bit satisfying to have the people who stood by while she was being bullied suddenly have their preconceptions about her shattered. But, at the same time, Taylor knew that the only thing that made them think was the fact she had superpowers, and that depressed her. Suddenly having classmates come up and try to be friends, or want to discuss the latest cape news, or want to get an introduction to Glory Girl, all of it was so fucking superficial, she wanted to scream.

Taylor smiled softly; fortunately, she already had a plan in motion to make things _interesting_.

-x-x-x-x-

Taylor was waiting outside of Lady Photon's office when Amy and Victoria arrived to Victoria's surprise. "How'd you get here before us? We flew directly from school!"

Taylor shrugged, "Winslow gets out half an hour earlier than Arcadia."

"Oh," Victoria sighed, wondering why Taylor kept insisting on studying at Winslow, Victoria's Aunt Sarah had already offered, several times, to expedite a transfer to Arcadia, but Taylor kept declining with a small smile on her face. It was that more than anything which creeped Victoria out the most about Taylor, no matter what she always had a small smile on her face, like she knew something that you didn't.

Amy just stood silently, playing with her hair.

"Any idea why Aunt Sarah wants to meet with us?" Victoria asked, not wanting to wait in silence.

"Dunno," Taylor shrugged again, her small smile still on her face, "I could make some guesses, or use my power, but what's the fun in that?"

Victoria didn't know how to respond to that. Taylor could easily find out what's going on, she always could, that was her power after all, but she didn't quite seem to get that everybody else couldn't. But what worried Victoria the most was how Taylor always seemed constantly bemused, as if she got something which everybody else didn't have clue about.

But before Victoria could ask again, the door to her aunt's office opened and her aunt asked them to enter.

Upon entering the office, they found that Lady Photon was standing with two masked robed figures, one about a head shorter than the other, but otherwise identical.

Before Victoria could ask, Lady Photon already started introductions. "Victoria, Amy, Taylor, I'd like you to meet Millipede and Centipede, the newest members of the Wards and Protectorate respectively. Milli, Centi, it's my pleasure to introduce my nieces Panacea and Glory Girl, along with Farseer."

The two robed figures bowed, "It is a pleasure to meet you." Something about her voice set Victoria on edge, it sounded off, like she was speaking through an echo chamber or something.

Victoria smiled, "It's always good to meet new heroes! I'm sure we'll get along great." Beside her, Amy nodded shyly, while Taylor still had her small smile, and was that a twinkle in her eye, but nodded as well.

"It is good to know that there are other heroines around my daughter's age, I'm sure she will appreciate having someone she can talk to who won't be, surprised, by her appearance." The shorter of the two seemed to shrink a little at the taller's words.

Victoria smiled, "I'm sure we'll get along great." Then the daughter comment registered, "Oh you're a second generation cape too! That's great, there aren't that many outside of my family and it'll be great to have someone to share experiences with."

Millipede seemed to shrink back even more, before replying, almost too quietly for Victoria to hear, "Third generation,"

Victoria frowned, "Third generation? But aren't you kind of old for that?"

Centipede was the one to reply, "We don't actually know our exact ages, we're what the PRT calls Case 53s. One day we just woke up, my daughter, my father and I, not knowing anything other than our relationships to each other."

To Victoria's surprise, Amy was the one to respond, "Is that why you wear those cloaks?"

What was she talking about? Why would that explain why they wore full cloaks. Victoria tried to recall what she knew about Case 53 capes. They were those capes who were found with no memory, a tattoo somewhere on their body and a generally some form of disfigurement. "Oh."

Millipede seemed to back away even further, but her mother put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Milli, these are heroes, I'm sure that they won't mind." She turned to Amy, "Yes, we wear these cloaks because our appearance tends to be a bit, discomforting, for most people. You see, our bodies are almost entirely made up of our namesakes."

Victoria tried picturing that in her head, and almost lost her lunch. Suddenly she was very thankful that the pair were wearing such concealing clothing.

Lady Photon, seemingly seeing where her niece's thoughts were going intervened, "I'm sure that the five of you will get plenty of chances to know each other. We're actually here to discuss another matter. You see-"

Centipede held up a hand, "Thank you Sarah, but I believe I should be the one to explain." She turned to face the three teens, and even though Victoria couldn't see it through her mask, she was certain that she was looking directly at them.

With eyes made of centipedes… Eww…

Victoria shook her head, and tried to erase that image, while Centipede was still speaking," –You see, my father, Decipede, unlike my daughter and myself, has not decided to become a hero, and is instead taking a more villainous role in this city. If you encounter him, you must call for back up immediately, as he has the power to control all the insects in his area."

Victoria barely repressed a snort, no insects were going to get past her invulnerability.

Lady Photon frowned at Victoria, a we will _talk_ later look on her face, but did not interrupt Centipede.

"While we are not currently sure where he is, he is a devious person, and totally without scruples. You must not underestimate him, as he has a habit of pulling out wins where he really shouldn't be able to."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "Yeah sure, we can take him."

Taylor slapped her.

* * *

 **3.6 (Solaris Requiem) (No Time For Games, pt 1)**

* * *

I stood above the city lights with darkened skies above my head. This Loop had brought me to Japan, of all places. But it was a different Japan than the one from my home Loop. The architecture was pretty much the same as the ones from my very few visits to Tokyo and upon first glance nothing seemed to have changed.

That was, of course, if you disregarded the fact that this version of Earth had been in constant contact with NINE different parallel worlds. Each of those worlds housed various 'monsters' that occasionally visited and partnered up with a human. These 'Buddy Monsters', as childish and simplistic as those names were, teamed up with a human to play a card game called 'Buddyfight'. I mean seriously, who the heck came up with those names, a 10-year old?

The more I thought about it the more that it reminded me of those few Earth Aleph cartoons and games that Uber and Leet had featured. It was called… Datamons or something like that? Whatever, those things never concerned me.

I was usually too busy trying to make sure that my friends didn't die, that Coil was killed as soon as possible, and trying to stay under Cauldron's radar FAR too often to learn about the intricacies of Aleph pop culture. I didn't have time for children's card games. I had bigger fish to fry most of the time.

Unfortunately for me, none of the parallel worlds had anything that resembled Tyranids so I was more or less forced to resort to using the local insect population. It didn't bother that much since most of the stuff that I had seen were pretty tame compared to my home Loop.

I took the streets after I found myself in Japan, donning the custom biomorph armor that I had finally finished. The Buddy Police, despite their completely stupid name, had a pretty good grip on keeping crime down in Tokyo. Probably because almost every officer had Monster back-up.

Of course, the fact that Brockton Bay was not the best place to use as comparisons might have had something to do with that. The only things I got from my patrol were a few mugging incidents, a drunk Monster, and a candy store robbery over the past few months. Normally my patrol would be very uneventful unless I went looking for trouble.

Unfortunately for the group of people that I was going to be taking down, this time I was actively looking for it.

-x-x-x-x-

"Is there something wrong, Tasuku?" Jacknife Dragon inquired as his partner tore his eyes away from the screen of his laptop. His partner, a blue-haired teen sighed as he stretched.

"Nothing much, I'm just looking over some crime reports," the teenage Buddy Police officer replied. "It's just this Loop is just a bit… strange."

"You're talking about Skitter," the dragon asserted. Tasuku nodded as he turned back to the report. On the screen of his laptop was a few images of a teenage dressed in black combat armor.

"She's definitely a Looper, there were no vigilantes of any sort during Baseline. The problem is that she's not responding to my Pings and none of us have any idea who she is," Tasuku sighed. "The Commander's getting a bit restless about having a complete unknown getting in over her head."

"If she's a Looper then she can handle it," Jack replied as looked over his partner's shoulder. Tasuku didn't seem convinced.

"That's not the problem. It's only a matter of time before does something drastic. If she makes too many changes then we won't be able to stop Yamigeddo when the time comes."

"Yamigeddo will remained sealed for another year. Gao and Drum have been checking on the seal every few days trying to find the exact day when the seal is undone," Jack reassured his partner. He lay his green-scaled and armored head on the teen's shoulder comfortingly. "You've been looking at the reports for the last four hours and you skipped dinner. Aren't you hungry?"

Almost right on cue the teen's stomach growled, demanding tribute immediately. Tasuku sighed as he relented to his partner's wishes, "Sorry, I lost track of time."

"We're family Tasuku, there's no need to apologize," Jack chuckled as he let his partner get out of his seat and stretch his legs. "Besides we have all-"

*BZZT BZZZT!* The alarm on Tasuku's phone went off, buzzing angrily. The teen sighed and picked it up.

"Hello?... What?!" Tasuku exclaimed. Jack took notice and quickly gave Tasuku space. The teen frowned as he listened. "What do you mean she- No wait, of course she would have found them so quickly. She must have had a Monster help her track down their location... Got it, Jack and I are on route."

Tasuku hung up the phone and quickly slipped on his jacket and uniform.

"What's going on?" the dragon asked.

"HQ just received a tip-off from Skitter. They're calling out every agent to investigate and prepare. She somehow found the Buddyfight Club."

-x-x-x-x-

When I first heard about the Buddyfight Club from my swarm sense I had assumed that it had been some sort of school thing. A small group that played that game with their friends after school. You know, the same kind of thing that was in TV shows.

I did not expect it to be a full-blown Monster trafficking and gambling organization. Buddyfight Club sounded like a twisted mix of Hookwolf's dog-fighting rings and the various human trafficking depots that were almost commonplace in Brockton Bay.

Of course there probably was no ACTUAL fighting, only Buddyfights, but the thought of intelligent beings being traded like objects and merchandise made me sick to my stomach. It had been easy to track down one of the escorts of the infamous club, tag them with a few insects, and then follow him back to the main event.

There was no need for me to go directly inside; there were more than enough insects in the main venue for me to work with. And after I took a look inside with my swarm senses, my caution was justified.

There were several Monsters scattered throughout the stadium, most of them robotic in nature. Some were in the audience, and others were serving as referees. And lounging around comfortably on a chair was a man in a gold and green robe. His hair was crimson, as if it was aflame, with a few golden accessories to match. The leader, Suzaku Kenran, if his fancy clothes were any indication.

Normally, I would find my way in, free any captive Monsters, and then leave quietly. But that was not my primary objective; the Buddy Police seemed to be competent enough to deal with the imprisoned Monsters. All I had to do was to make sure to stall for time.

Instead, I was here to send a message. A statement.

There were no guards on the outside, by the looks of it. They probably did not expect anyone to be able to locate them. With the spectacle of a fight going on inside, several of them weren't so much as paying attention.

I kept my Warp cloak up as I practically waltzed right in without so much as a second glance. The stealth cloak was able to bypass Tinkertech with ease; those toys that were installed on the ceilings and wall were pretty much nothing.

All in all, it was laughably easy to walk up right to the stadium door, deep within the castle that I found myself in.

Nobody so much as glanced at me as I charged up a blast of Warp energy in my hand. My cloak flickered and before any of them were so much as to notice my existence, I fired.

The blast of energy wrecked the door, tearing off of its hinge and sending it flying inwards. There were cries of alarm at those the people in the stadium were interrupted in their children's card game before they all fell silent.

My boots, armored and jet black, echoed through the suddenly silent stadium as I slowly walked forward. Not a person dared to break the silence for a good few seconds, still dumbfounded by what I just did.

"Who… invited a _girl_ here?" the leader spat. I rolled my eyes before I tapped into my swarm's voice.

"If that's the first question that came into your head when I walked in here then you should get your priorities straight."

The leader flipped out a fan with the flick of his wrist, "It's one of the unspoken rules of the club: no girls allowed on the premises."

Great, I was dealing with a sexist and an overwhelming prick. How old was he? 10? What kind of stupid rule was that?!

"I'm not here to chat," my swarm buzzed as I walked forward. "I'm here to take this club down."

"Oh that's funny," the leader laughed as he fanned himself. He reminded me of Lung, if he was into gold dresses and drag. "Do you really think that you can take down all of us?"

Monsters manifested left and right around me as the security detail of the place started to get an idea of what was going on. But all of it was more… cute than anything else. They had no idea who they were dealing with.

"I'll give you a choice," my swarm buzzed. "Turn yourselves in and I won't deliver all of you to the Buddy Police in body bags."

"You and what army?" Suzaku leered. I smirked.

"Hermes."

I called, and he answered. Space tore itself open as the Swarmlord emerged from my Pocket in all of his terrifying glory. I had been able to take enough biomass over the months that I'd been in my local Loops that I had been to restore the massive Tyranid to most of his former glory. The fact there were lots of biomass from the other parallel worlds, most of which were pitifully easy to access, allowed me to accelerate Herme's growth.

Four bone-sabers, singing with energy hummed in his grasp as smoke bellowed from the pipes on his back. Pitch black and blood red chitin armor covered most of the all 20 feet of Tyranid flesh, scattering the lights above him. His fanged face, crowned by a serrated horn, sneered at the pitiful enemies around him before he took in a breath and roared. The shockwave of sound and psionic energy shattered glass and sent dust flying, staggering everyone in the room. All except for me.

The room was dead silent as everyone was riveted in horror and shock. I took control of Herme's body, working his vocal chords to deliver a message in both sound and mind. One that I made sure that everyone in the castle and the stadium could hear. Even though his voice overwhelmed the swarm and my own, the three spoke in unison.

" _ **Run."**_

* * *

 **3.7 (BIOS-Pherecydes)**

* * *

Fucking. Tinkers.

Bad enough that any time one of them shows up it makes my job infinitely harder, but is it too much to ask that on the rare occasions that Yggdrasil tosses me a Tinker power the reverse also applies. Of course it is. Let's count off all the ways I started out screwed this Loop:

Woke up in the Locker? Check. So much hate.

No Pocket access? Why not.

Missed meeting up with the Undersiders because Tinkering takes a _long_ time to produce usable results? Absolutely.

Ran out of money halfway in? Obviously.

So here I was, crouched in the side of the bank just as the Undersiders break in. Why they showed up now instead of next week I couldn't say, but I would bet half of my newly liberated funds that Coil is to blame. Should have known better than to try and pull one over on Coil. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Shards are bullshit.

A quick Ping actually does return a result, and to my relief Tattletale quickly spotted me in the back of the room. I couldn't hear whatever excuses she makes, but Grue didn't object as she left Regent and him to continue loading up bags with cash while Brutus, Judas and Angelica stood guard over the civilians.

"Hey there Taylor, love the suit. Has a real Spiderman meets Spartan-II vibe going on. So... Tinker this Loop? Sounds fun." Yep, same old Lisa.

"Not nearly as much as you might think. Giant bulls-eye on my back every time I step outside, and I haven't even done anything yet. Or at least I hadn't until now anyway." I told her, shuffling one of the travel suitcases strapped to my back.

Tattletale nodded. "You just so happened to pick today of all days to rob the bank, _coincidentally_ at the same time Coil sends us to do the same. Sounds about right. Lucky you huh? On the bright side, it'll be easier to bring you into the fold. How much you willing to bet Coil's been splitting timelines like a politician splits hairs."

"Even the Number Man couldn't count those odds." I answered with a chuckle. "At least Amy isn't here today. That has to count for something. It still doesn't explain how you guys expect to get out of here when the Wards show up though."

Tattletale gave a sly grin and a sharp whistle. "Leave that to our newest member."

"New member? Who?"

My question was answered with a explosion of white ash, and the sudden appearance of a new figure. A familiar one at that. Without a word he scooped up several of the bags and another flash of ash erupted. He then threw away the bags in his hands and moved to help Grue bust open one of the lockboxes before dissolving into more ash. At the same time another copy of him had appeared to repeat the process.

"Ugh, that's one hell of a feedback loop. Gonna take a while to get used to that." Regent muttered, stumbling slightly before moving to fill another bag with cash.

Turning back to Tattletale I wordlessly demanded an explanation.

"We got lucky during our little scuffle with the ABB. Regent managed to tag the real Oni Lee before he could teleport, and immediately started working on him. By the time Lung showed up we had ourselves an extra hand. Made our escape much less messy than it would have otherwise been."

I nodded reluctantly. Not like I had much room for moral objections after Kephri. "Lucky huh?"

Lisa just smirks and opts for silence. A burst of static in my helmet abruptly caught my notice, something Tattletale immediately picked up on and she turned to call out to the others in the vault. "Hey guys, speed it up. The white hats are closing in."

Grue cursed and started loading the remaining bags onto Bitch's dogs. Rachel just glares at me, but holds back since Lisa hasn't objected to my presence, choosing to return to sentry duty for now. Ugh. Regaining Rachel's trust is always one of the least fun parts of a new Loop. Worth it though.

Lisa turned back to me with a smirk. "ETA?"

"Looks like about three minutes, tops. Enough time to bail?"

She grinned. "Plenty."

In the end escape came a lot easier than it had Baseline; Oni Lee distracting Vista to slow down the Ward's arrival, and Grue's darkness hiding Rachel's dogs. Tattletale gave me an invite to the loft, despite the other's reluctance, in 'exchange' for my help drawing off pursuit. That was fine with me, as I needed a bit of field experience to get the hang of my new gear. From what I could tell my specialty seemed to be communication, which made sense considering how my Unawake self had been despairing over not carrying a cellphone before her Trigger. In practice that included a large swath of electronics and the systems that ran them, up to and including satellites which was where my new armor had come from; not including the propulsion system which I had shamelessly ripped off from Defiant's design for my Weaver suit.

After a few thousand years even Tinker tech became easy enough to replicate given a reasonable amount of familiarity.

The problem of course was the aforementioned time and materials needed to get anything I could actually use. I had cannibalized a lot of random scrap in the Boat Graveyard and abandoned buildings on the Docks, but anything more sophisticated required a lot of cash that I didn't have. Or at least that I hadn't had until now. The bright side to this was that my specialty allowed me to bypass a good amount of security protocols without drawing overmuch attention and as such there was a lot of blueprints available on the PRT databanks that I couldn't wait to start shifting through, but the limitations to communication systems meant that a lot of those designs would be little better than chicken scratch to me.

Luckily the internet is a thing, and there are a lot of people who would benefit from the less dangerous Tinker tech inventions if they had them, people in the Docks not the least of them. Of course once again Bureaucracy had insured that only PRT members had access to those inventions; something I intended to fix at the earliest possible convenience. My time as Weaver had given me a decent working knowledge of some of the things available, and my time as an Undersider meant that I knew which capes could be trusted not to start a war if they suddenly found themselves with PRT technology. If all went well, this time next year I could have Brockton Bay well on its way towards recovery. Assuming of course I could do something about the upcoming Leviathan fight.

To that respect I suppose joining up with Coil wasn't a bad option. While I didn't trust him any further than I could throw him, which was a lot farther this Loop than normal I reminded myself, there were definitely worse options to hold control of the city. His betrayal was pretty much inevitable, but if I did it right I could probably put it off for at least a year; possibly two even. Long enough to take care of most of the typical issues. Dinah was still a sore point for me, but I had more than enough leverage after Looping for so long that I could easily make myself more valuable to him than one precog's abilities. Add in my current power and I could probably even get him to release her within the month.

Noelle was honestly safer where she was. At least until Coil had to be dealt with; his death was without fail the tipping point that sent the off the ticking timebomb that was Echidna. With two Awake Loopers active near her a lot of the Simurgh's futuresight was negated. Best case scenario there would be a cure this Loop, it had happened on occasion; but if worst came to worst we could hopefully hold her off until Scion's attack. Not that I intended to let Jack Slash anywhere near that bastard if I could help it.

The best way this Loop to nip that in the bud would probably be to play up to Armsmaster's ego a bit. With my Tinker skills it probably wouldn't be to hard to tap into a tracking satellite and feed the PRT realtime information on the S9; and routing it through Armsmaster would probably guarantee that he'd be ready to take him down the second he saw a chance. If I got lucky, maybe even before Jack ever stepped foot in Brockton Bay. After that it was just a matter of whether the Loop continued past the typical endpoint or extended another fifteen years and we had to take on Scion anyway.

Out of all the major issues, the golden asshole was the only one I couldn't consistently plan around; but eventually I'd find a way. Preferably without another Khepri incident, I had had more than enough of that to last me one eternity. Until that point though, the biggest issue would be the Endbringers. It would be a while yet before I could take them on and hope to win, until then at least Scion was good for something. Eidolon would have to be informed of his role in the Endbringers existence or taken out somehow before Behemoth was killed to prevent Khonsu, Tohu and Bohu being created; but there was still plenty of time to figure out how to break the news to him.

For the time being I would just focus on the things that I could do now.

After stashing my ill-gotten gains for the time being, I hurried home. My dad was probably worried after the new of the Bank hit the news and if there was one thing I was grateful to the Loops for it was the chance to mend my relationship with my dad. My time as Weaver always ended up tainted by my past as Skitter whenever I ended up going that route, so much so that I tried to go hero as often as I could manage to deal with the PRT's red tape just to avoid it. This time around though I had gone for the simple expedient of coming clean from the get go.

As such my dad was fully aware of my reasons for not wanting to join the Wards, and after the debacle at Winslow had been shoved under the table he had fully supported my decision to drop out and get an online GED. As a side benefit Shadow Stalker had found herself much less welcome around the Docks; never underestimate a well-respected member of the community's ability to rouse support. Nothing ever went so far as to involve the media, at my request and passed along by my dad, but the PRT had taken a major hit to their reputation among Brockton Bay's citizens and still didn't know why.

Seriously, I have the best dad ever.

Said dad was just hanging up the phone when I entered the house, and let out a sigh of relief at the sight of me. "Taylor, thank god. I was afraid you had gotten caught up in that thing at the bank."

I felt terrible lying to him. So I ddin't. This Loop was all about full-disclosure. "I kinda was."

He looked up so sharply that I swore I heard a crack in his neck and opened his mouth to ask, but I cut him off with a raised hand. "You remember that thing I was telling you about the time loops and my powers?"

He grimaced and nodded. "I thought you said you weren't going to be a villain though."

"I'm not. But I'm not really a hero either, not really. I've seen too many secrets from the supposed heroes, you remember what I told you about Alexandria rght? That isn't even the worst of it. I've done some bad things, and I ususally have good reasons for them; or at least I try to, I like to think I do anyway. This is one of those things. I can't do what I need to working as a hero, and I can't fix what I want to as a villain. So I'm not going to be either one."

He slumped, the same way he usually does when he thinks he's somehow failed me, and I quicky moved to cut off that line of thinking with a hug. "You aren't going to hurt anyone are you?"

Always with the hard questions first. I pulled up a chair and took a seat with a tired sigh. "I'm going to try not to, but even if I tried being a hero I can't promise that. The world is a crapsack, and that's not something I can change." _Yet._ "But I will be as safe as possible, and I'm doing everything I can to make sure that you are too. That everyone is."

Dad didn't sit, too busy pacing as he tried to keep calm. "I know. I trust you, but I still don't like it. I don't like the idea of you going into dangerous places, getting into situations that I can't help you with."

I grimaced. There had been more than one occasion where I had been close enough to my dad instead of Aiden at the point where my Shard budded and he ended up Triggering. One the one hand I hate those occasions, because it's my fault it happened. Both his ability to Trigger and, more often than not, the Trigger itself. The idea that I was doubly responsible for the single worst moment of my dad's life in those Loops was like a constant dagger in the back of my mind.

On the other hand, having my dad standing at my side for the remainder of those Loops is almost worth the guilt. Almost.

"I don't like the fact that you're stuck in this time loop thing and I can't help you with that either. But most of all, I don't like the fact that everything is so screwed up that this is the best option you can think of to get by." He sighed as the anger drained out of him, replaced by a deep weariness, and sank into the other chair. "I worry about you kiddo."

"I know, I'm worried too. But I think I can do this, I'm getting better at it every time. And I'm not alone anymore, a few of my friends are Looping now too." And words cannot even begin to describe how much a relief that was, the endless loneliness having finally been broken. I'm not sure how much longer I could have taken not having any other native Loopers without snapping.

He frowned. "You told me about them, the Undersiders right? And you're sure you can trust them?"

I nodded. "They wouldn't have started Looping if I didn't. Only the people are close to can be Activated." Mostly. But he didn't need to know about the MLEs unless one showed up. He had enough to worry about without adding something that probably wouldn't ever even come up.

Rather than be comforted by my answer though, he seemed to deflate. I barely caught his whispered response. "Only people you're close to. Then what does that make me?"

Well... that hit me like one of Leviathan's tidal waves. I hurried to try and ease his pain. "It isn't just you! A lot of Anchor's parents typically don't Activate for some reason." And promptly placed my foot in my mouth.

"Oh." If anything he seemed to diminish even further. "But your friends... you can rely on them right? Good. That's good."

"Dad..."

"It's okay Taylor. Listen, I'm going to go for a walk alright. There was a phone call for you before you got back. Someone named Contessa. I'll be back in a bit."

I opened my mouth to object, but the words didn't come and I was left hitting myself as my dad left.

Dammit! Hundreds of thousands of years old, and I still can't have a simple talk with my dad without screwing something up. DAMMIT! And of course Cauldron had to call _now_. It wasn't unexpected, they typically confronted me at least every other Loop. My Awakening evidently threw off Contessa's current Path to Victory like nothing else; sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. They typically wanted to know why. But since our Branch was apparently Murphy's vacation home, they just had to interfere now.

Well fine.

"DOOR!"

There was a brief pause, and then a portal opened into the sterile white halls of the Cauldron facility where a surprised Doctor Mother and Contessa waited. I was good and pissed, what better way to blow off some steam than taking it out on the ones responsible for it.

* * *

 **3.8 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

Utterly bored, I leaned one fist against my chin and yawned out loud as I stared at the mech I knew belonged to Dragon. "So... to what do I owe the pleasure of-" A moment later, I was cut off as an annoyed Alexandria walked in. "Well, as I was saying, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visits to."

Walking over, Alexandria growled as she brought her fists down onto the table. If it was me before the loops, I would have been stuck between horror and some bit of hero worship... Or at least the me before that bullshit with that prick of a Director.

Now though, I was even more bored. "Please mind the wood."

Before Alexandria could reply, Dragon reached up with one clawed hand and gently pushed her back. "Skitter... we're here in regards to something that has happened involving your troop and someone's... evil twin."

I just held up my hands and blinked. "Whoa there! I can assure you that we didn't throw anyone's evil twin into the future except for that one time." Then I blinked and narrowed my eyes. "Wait... what incident are you talking about?"

Dragon just facepalmed and I chalked it up mentally as a win in my head, it wasn't often that I managed to do that after all. "Skitter... we had reports that you and your troop went and hypnotized someone's... evil twin... into doing some things and-"

At that moment, Alexandria smashed a fist through her table. "AND HE'S BEEN SENDING ME THESE SAPPY LOVE LETTERS EVER SENSE! ALL OF THE TIME AND THEY KEEP APPEARING WHEN I TRY TO MAKE THEM STOP! I COULD BE ON THE DAMN MOON AND THEY SOMEHOW FIND THEIR WAY TO ME!"

For a few seconds, I stared at her as I wondered if they got through to her at Cauldron's base. It goes without saying that I was really, _really_ tempted to ask her, but didn't as it was way too much trouble then it was worth to do so. "Well... at least he isn't breaking the law or hurting anyone, right?"

Much to my surprise, Dragon's tone became utterly dry. "Breaking the law, no one knows. But hurting someone? I've read some of them and trust me, they hurt my mind trying to figure them out..."

All I could do was chuckle as I rubbed the back of my neck…

* * *

 **3.1 cont (Euroteres)**

* * *

Armsmaster sat across from Director Piggot's desk with Skitter seated just to his right. If he were to be honest, he was somewhat surprised that this conversation wasn't taking place while he was confined to a M/S containment cell, but Piggot seemed to have found the situation important enough and the risks low enough to delay that until after the extended debriefing. From the look on the woman's face he had a feeling she was beginning to regret that decision.

"Time travel," she said, her voice flat. "No, not just that, time _loops_. I was wary enough when you called in the Master/Stranger situation Armsmaster, but now I'm not entirely uncertain you haven't simply snapped and dragged some foolish, starstruck teenager into your delusions with y-" Director Piggot was interrupted, her momentary flinch almost unnoticeable as a small laptop appeared in Skitter's hands, open and primed to play the same video she had used part of to rebuke the majority of his own protests of disbelief at the situation barely an hour earlier. "What-"

"Five minutes," the other cape said. "Five minutes to convince you that we aren't lying." A long, tense moment passed as Piggot's gaze bored into Skitter's, seeking out any sign of weakness or trickery. Armsmaster felt a moment of pity for the director. After she'd truly come into herself as a cape, any attempt to get Skitter submit was an effort in futility at best and a recipe for horrific bodily pain otherwise (and possibly a trip to the morgue as Tagg and Alexandria had learned the hard way). Piggot could bring to bear a truly astonishing force of presence for an overweight woman who was continually suffering varying degrees of pain, but it was worth next to nothing here, even if one ignored Skitter's tens of thousands of years of experience.

The moment passed and absent of any protest from the director, Skitter started the video. Short clips began to play, and Armsmaster found himself as transfixed as he had been the first time. It was brutal, almost unbelievably so. Death was the focus of almost every clip. Capes would die. Civilians would die. Then the next clip would play and those people were being killed again, in a different scenario, or perhaps a scenario that was _almost_ the same.

Five minutes passed and no one made a move to stop the video, then ten. He saw a clip where Dragon Suits clouded the sky, burning a city full of innocent people to ashes. He wondered for a moment which of the three villainous Dragons Skitter had mentioned was being shown. Immediately after he contemplated whether he was better off not knowing.

Fifteen minutes. Twenty. The Endbringers showcased in many of the clips. He'd been to roughly thirty of the fights in his time as a hero and the Triumvirate had all been to over a hundred by the time The Golden Morning had occurred. But seeing these clips. Seeing how many of them were from obviously separate Endbringer fights. How many thousands, no _tens_ of thousands of fights had Skitter attended? How many times had she faced those nigh unstoppable monstrosities? How many times had they managed to kill her?

Twenty-five minutes. Thirty. How many different variations of the beginning Scion's rampage had he seen now? How many different cities had he seen eradicated while the abomination smiled like it was a child who'd been told they'd been given an entire candy store? It was almost unreal seeing such an extensive range of emotions on its face. Rage, glee, vindictiveness, absolute crushing despair. There were several clips of its true body as it was destroyed, a massive undefinable existence that drilled home an overbearing feeling of _other_.

The video ended. Skitter produced a small, high tech - _was that tinkertech? it was throwing his power into a sort of spastic circlejerk-_ camera from out of nowhere and ejected a disk from the laptop, placing both on Piggot's desk. "You can find someone you trust to verify the authenticity of these videos if you'd like. If that's not enough, the Undersiders might rob a bank in four days during that Youth Guard thing the Protectorate is being forced to attend, though I think I'm probably going to head that off early because not having to deal with Coil using it as a distraction to kidnap and drug a preteen girl to the gills so he can abuse her stupidly strong precog power is always worth the effort. Sometimes he completely books it out of town with her if I don't stop it which makes it annoying to track him down. You _will_ probably have to worry about Bakuda going batshit crazy in the next five or six days and beginning to indiscriminately bomb places with wildly differing explosive effects while Oni Lee uses some more of her bombs to assault the Rig and free Lung." Her piece said, Skitter made the laptop disappear, rose to her feet, and calmly exited the office, leaving Armsmaster and the director alone.

There was a long silence as the director stared past him and at the door Skitter had left through. Her expression was blank and Armsmaster wasn't sure if she'd gotten so mindnumbingly angry that she'd looped back around into deathly calm, or if she was legitimately thrown that far off balance by what Skitter had shown them. "Nine times out of ten," she began, "I'd have thrown you into Master/Stranger isolation for a _month_ for this kind of shit. Instead, I'm going to go home and drink _exactly_ as much hard liquor as my body can handle before it blows out on me. Considering that you believe yourself to have also gotten caught up in whatever fresh hell that girl seems to have been roped into, I suggest you do the same. You're dismissed."

Armsmaster nodded and left the room, only mildly surprised to see Skitter waiting a few feet down the hall.

"Glad to see she isn't being too heavy handed this time around," she said, joining him as they began walking down the hall. "Though that might have to do with the numerous bombs I just dropped in her lap."

Armsmaster frowned. "This time around?"

"Yeah, it's another one of those Variant things I mentioned before. Director Piggot's view of parahumans tends to range from 'parahumans need to be carefully watched and guided because they're all highly damaged individuals who got dangerous powers precisely _because_ they're damaged' to 'parahumans need to be led by the nose to get anything done without causing excessive collateral damage measuring in dead bodies, buildings destroyed and economies tanked'," she explained. "Other noticeable variants in our branch include the exact frequency the Glory Girl/Gallant break up/make up cycle occurs at, and the intelligence to arrogance ratio Coil has on any given loop. Even ignoring how some of the details in Loop Memories can be exceedingly inconsistent, there can easily be half a dozen small but noticeable differences in details each loop."

Armsmaster hmm'd in understanding. "That sounds like it can get confusing."

"Loop Memories tend to help acclimatize you to any of the more notable changes, but it can still get pretty weird," Skitter said. "Remind me to tell you about the time Panacea had hordes of obsessively devoted fans and Glory Girl had to sometimes literally beat them off with her fists whenever the two went anywhere. Let me tell you, the Undersiders did not have a fun time with the bank robbery that loop."

He found himself trying to picture the scenario for a moment before shoving the thought aside for later contemplation, especially since there was something more pertinent he wanted to bring up. "That camera you gave the director was tinkertech. Is there a reason you aren't using something more mundane? I can't imagine it being very efficient having to get someone else to maintain gear like that from loop to loop."

"It would be if they were actually tinkertech," she responded, sounding more like she was discussing the weather instead of upending his worldview for the umpteenth time that night. "I mean I've been a tinker a bunch of times because of Variants, but that camera was built using technology from a different branch where sapient mythological creatures are real and maintain a secret underground society through a combination of hyper advanced technology and magic. I can't actually build tinkertech when I'm not looping with a tinker power, but I started picking up on some of the concepts after enough loops and it helped when working with legitimately reproducible technology that applied those concepts. I tend to get specialties centered around surveillance and drone control with a side of wet tinkering revolving around human-machine interfacing so the camera wasn't too hard to create with the help of that branch's local experts and I know enough to perform general maintenance when it's needed." Skitter paused for a moment, and when she next spoke her voice was hesitant. "I've also had specialties that expand that into the control of, well, humans and parahumans. I...don't really like exploring, or even contemplating those options honestly."

Before Armsmaster could form a response to that revelation, Skitter spoke up once more, sounding rushed. "I should really get home though. With my luck my dad's noticed I'm not in bed and that conversation always tends to be a bit awkward." With that said she picked up her pace and turned the next corner, heading out of sight. Armsmaster's own pace slowed as the last few hours events finally began to catch up with him and he let out a weary sigh.

*Twenty Minutes Later*

Colin stared at his workshop, taking in the sight of countless old projects in various states of completion. It was an strange feeling, remembering working on some of them almost two years ago yet simultaneously only a few hours ago. He could remember now, clearly, his frustration with his place in life. How there didn't ever seem to be enough time in the day. He could remember the fear that he was falling behind, unable to take satisfaction in the successes he claimed because in Brockton Bay they were _never enough_. He could remember projects he'd reluctantly sidelined or abandoned because it wouldn't help him fast enough.

He...didn't have that problem anymore, except for perhaps in the frame of a single loop. That realization hit him and he paused, already halfway to his workbench. He turned around and left his workshop, heading towards his living quarters. They weren't as unused as some of the other members of the local Protectorate might jest, but it was true enough that he didn't spend nearly as much time here as the average person might. He wasn't one for alcohol like Piggot had suggested, mostly because drunken tinkering was an exercise in flipping a coin and praying to whatever god you believed in that you didn't cannibalize several important projects in an effort to build the world's most elaborate bean counter. He could do with a few extra hours of sleep though.

* * *

3.1: Oh hey Colin

3.2: In which Taylor is four capes at once

3.3: Tattletale and Skitter, aged 6. Brockton Bay is doomed.

3.4: Armsmaster's Random Excuse Generator: "I'm a victim of crime. I'm here to complain that my evil twin has been sent to the future by the Girl Scouts' cookie-selling brigade."

3.5: Trolling. The Looper's favourite hobby.

3.6: No fair bringing a Swarmlord to a Buddyfight [Future Card Buddyfight]

3.7: The Loops are more tolerable with company. Earth-Bet is still a crapsack though.

3.8: Armsmaster's Random Excuse Generator: "I'm a victim of crime. I'm here to complain that my evil twin has been hypnotised by the Girl Scouts' cookie-selling brigade into writing sappy love notes to Alexandria."


	4. Chapter 4

**4.1 (RocjawCypher)**

* * *

Taylor jerked Awake in her hospital bed, body arching in half remebered agony before she collapsed back on to her pillow, panting for breath.

"Nhhegh!" Taylor gritted out with a shudder, desperately trying to purge the memory of her body turning to crystal, molecule by excruciating molecule. The last loop had been a bad one. She'd been in the wards that attempt, trying to help mitigate the damage from the Bakuda incident via search and rescue, only to find one bomb with her feet instead of her bugs.

As she let her breathing slow, a feeling of numbness across her senses as she forced the memory from her mind, she began to consider just how she could avoid that again. Reaching out to her swa-

Her swarm was gone. She froze, still grasping at nothing with a limb that didn't exist. She panicked momentarily, frantically searching for some sign of her powers, as her eyes darted across the sunny, white, hospital room.

This was the one she'd ended up in just after the locker incident, so she should have triggered by now, unless-

She froze again, before relaxing. Different powers. Probably not Queen Administrator, but thankfully not powerless. A moment of silently sensing her shard let her tag it as Imp's based on her scattered memories of the golden morning.

'Useful,' she mused, 'Not overpowered, but a solid piece of work.' With a little bit of planning she could do some serious damage to her opponents, but where to start?

"Bakuda..." the name slipped from her lips unconsciously, as faint twinges of pain wracked her once more. With a decidedly unpleasant smile, she began to consider just how quickly she could piss off Bakuda bad enough to bring down her base on top of her own head, slow and measured steps taking her towards the door as she whistled the tune to the ghostbuster's theme.

She was going to enjoy this.

* * *

 **4.2 (Solaris Requiem) (No Time For Games, pt 2) (3.6 cont)**

* * *

The Horror, as Ciaphas had called it, was a literal fear aura that gnawed at the minds of those around it with its inhuman and utterly alien presence. I broadcast it through Hermes in order to send the message across loud and clear. The fact that the Swarmlord was 20 feet tall, armed, and armored to the teeth also helped.

The people nearby scattered almost immediately as the psionic wave took hold in their minds. Some screamed, some wept, some wet themselves, but they all ran from Hermes. They ran from me.

There was a single road out of the castle and back into the city proper. Said route was, probably, being used by the Buddy Police as they made their way here in the first place. Downside of having the club take place in such a remote location.

"What kind of monster is that?" Suzaku frowned. I tilted my head as I noticed that he was still coherent despite taking The Horror straight on. It looked like he was stronger than he looked. I took partial control of Hermes once more and used his vocal chords to speak.

" _ **I am Hermes,"**_ the Swarmlord spoke with a voice that shook the very air in its horrific might, " _ **Lord of the Swarm. The Devourer and the Conqueror."**_

"So you're one of Yamigeddo's 100 Demons," Suzaku sneered before he turned to me. "I'm surprised that the World Eater took the form of a human girl. I knew we shouldn't have let humans watch over the seal. Typical human incompetence," the man sighed.

I had no idea who the heck this Yamigeddo was, but I could see him set on edge. I could work with that. But there was something about that last sentence that caught my attention.

"We?" I tilted my head. Suzaku chuckled darkly.

"All that time behind that seal of yours must have made your memory rusty. Allow me to remind you," he said as he snapped his fan shut. There was a swirl of power and light and an explosion of power as a star descended onto the stadium floor.

Massive wings, pulsing with a rainbow of energy unfolded. Gilded scales that shimmered with latent energy shone brightly despite the stadium lights. Weapons of energy and armor that was beautiful and deadly sang with light and sound. He stood taller than Hermes and glowered down at me in utter contempt. Several other monsters, most likely his personal bodyguards, manifested beside him.

" **I am Variable Cord,"** the dragon spoke, " **the Sixth of the Eight Omni-Lords. The ones who sealed you away countless centuries ago. I will also be the one to destroy you,"**

Well, crap. God-awful name aside, it looked like he didn't just share his attitude with Lung. Now I had to deal with a rainbow robot dragon that was clad head to toe in tinkertech armor. Oh well, I wasn't looking to fight him to win. All I had to do was to stall for time for the police to arrive. It was… weird to be able to say those kind of things. I wasn't used to working with a reasonably powerful and competent police force.

I called forth other members of the Tyranid Hive to match their number. Tyrant Warriors with their bone sabers and Acid cannons and Tyrant Guards with their heavy weaponry and armor stepped forth. For every dragon Variable Cord had called, a Tyranid met them bearing weapons and hissing with wrath. I connected each one to the Hive Mind and to the network of the surrounding Tyranids. With each connection, the collective Tyranid force grew stronger and stronger as their minds resonated with each other in perfect harmony.

Now Cord's minions looked cautious and reasonably nervous at an almost intimidating fight force now that I was no longer outnumbered. I scoffed. Did they play so many games that they had forgotten how to fight? The Tyranid Hive Mind had eons of experience and power to back them up. The Hive had devoured galaxies and created a force that was the stuff of nightmares back in the 40k Loop.

They showed a brief moment of hesitation and I took advantage of it. Hermes roared with fury and charged at Variable Cord, and then the battle started. In the chaos of the battle I entered stealth, managing my Tyranid troops as I did so, and left behind an insect double.

I still had work to do after all. There were still monsters imprisoned here and I needed to make sure they got out before the building inevitably collapsed.

-x-x-x-x-

"Please save me!" a man in a suit babbled as he clutched an officer's uniform. His eyes were manic and wild with fear. "Please, I won't attend the club again! I'll pay back my debts! I'll go to jail! Please just take me away from that thing!"

The officer looked unnerved and he wasn't the only one. The road was packed with countless people and Monsters alike, desperate to get away from whatever had happened at the castle. It was something that sent a shiver down Tasuku's spine.

"Tasuku, do you feel that?" Jack growled as his armor and cybernetic augments hummed with energy. The Looper looked towards the path that they had come from and shuddered. He could definitely feel… something coming from the direction of that the throng of people had come from. Something very, very wrong.

Tasuku's communicator buzzed before he brought it to his ear, "Tasuku here."

"Tasuku, you need to go on ahead. All of the officers are currently tied up arresting and keeping the member of the Buddyfight Club from escaping," the communicator buzzed. "Intel suggests that Skitter either IS an Illegal Monster or she had back-up from them. And you know how dangerous they can be."

Tasuku frowned. Illegal monsters were monsters who came to Earth without registering with the Buddy Police. Such Monsters didn't have the necessary safeguards and restraints that kept their powers under control. Those restraints were what prevented Monsters from utilizing their full power outside of Buddyfights. Without them, Illegal Monsters could easily wreak havoc and destruction within seconds.

"Jack and I will keep that in mind. Anything else?" he asked. The communicator buzzed briefly before a reply came.

"You have full authority to use Future Force as you see fit. You can use it to manifest whatever cards you find to be necessary into reality. Don't take any chances."

"Roger," Tasuku sighed with relief as he activated his deck case. The device morphed into a hovering star that scattered sparks of light in the night. Two wheels of light materialized on the sides of his feet, allowing him to take to the air alongside his partner.

"Command must be spooked to have granted you the authorization off the back," Jack huffed as the two made their way closer to their own destination.

"They're scared of Skitter," Tasuku replied. "None of us had to deal with a vigilante before: they don't know how to deal with her."

"Drum dealt with a few during his time in Hero World," Jack reminded him. "Unfortunately neither he or Gao are part of the police force yet. We can't call on them for help."

"Right. Do you have the Emblem?" Tasuku inquired. Jack nodded and pulled the Omni-Lord Emblem out of his Pocket. Jack had obtained Suzaku's emblem in a previous Loop and had taken it when the Omni-Lord had turned rogue several Loops ago.

"I will use it if I need to. But with your help it won't be necessary," Jack grinned. Tasuku smiled as he patted his partner's side, reassured by his partner's presence.

"We need to hurry. Skitter doesn't stand a chance against Cord in a Buddyfight."

-x-x-x-x-

I found my way to the prison-tower, augmenting my body and armor with my psychic abilities. The battle between Cord and Hermes was still underway. Although the forces were even in power, strength, and numbers, my Tyranid troops had veritable millennia of combat experience and prowess to draw from. They were united under my will, and the previous stalemate slowly began to become weighted in my favor.

Maybe if they hadn't wasted time playing games all the time they would have been more prepared for combat, I thought cynically. The real world didn't work like a TV show: card games didn't solve everything. If things were solved by something as childish as that then the world would have been a much simpler place.

Perhaps I was projecting my thoughts onto this new Loop, but I honestly couldn't bring myself to care. I wasn't about to let this world become like Brockton Bay and Earth Bet.

"What do you think is going on?" a voice called out as I approached the entrance to the tower.

"Beats me, the boss told us to not move from here," another replied. I frowned as I stopped moving, quickly calling upon my insects to scout out. There were two monster standing guard just inside of the prison complex. A dragon in battle armor as well as a robot with sleek weapons.

"Just being around this place makes me sick," one dragon sighed as he glanced back towards the prison block. His scales were pitch black and his eyes were a light blue, "It just feels… wrong you know?"

"I don't like it either but orders are orders. All of the monsters here were abandoned by their partners," his partner, a robot with blue armor and a large halberd spat. "Humans are scum, as usual. They didn't even glance back when we took them away. They're better off here then with them. At least they have a chance of getting a better partner when they get a buyer."

I tilted my head as I watched them bicker to each other and chatter, oblivious to my presence. But perhaps those attitudes could be put to use. I decloaked and walked straight in, keeping my swarm around me in a buzzing storm of wings and shells.

"Heads up, we've got company," the dragon growled as I approached them. I made no overly aggressive maneuvers, but the threat was still present.

"I'm not here for a fight," my swarm spoke. "I'm just here to free the other Monsters. Neither of you like working here, correct?"

"Cord will have our hides if we let you through," the robot replied. "We're both Illegal Monsters. If either of us so much as breathe wrongly we'll have to fend off for ourselves from the Buddy Police."

"The Buddy Police are already on their way. They're already rounding up the people who ran away from Hermes," my swarm buzzed. Both of the Monsters tensed as I continued, "But I'll make you a better deal than Cord. The Buddy Police already think that I have insiders within the club working for me. Act the part and you'll be able to get some leniency from the Police."

The dragon frowned, "What's keeping you from stabbing us in the back, Skitter? I've heard all about your reputation."

"Because unlike him I keep my word," my swarm buzzed. "And what other choice do you have? Cord will either be dead or in custody by the end of the night."

"She has a point," the robot drawled. "Look at it this way Tyris, she can't be worse than Cord."

The dragon looked conflicted before he finally sighed, "Fine, you win Caduto." The dragon pulled out a glowing device from his armor and tossed it to me.

"There's a lot of monsters here so we're going to need your help to if we're going to let get all of them out of their binds. That's the master key to the west tower. Take care of the monsters locked up there and we'll meet you outside in the courtyard."

"Very well," my swarm buzzed as I left them behind to move on. I watched them delve deep within the prison block, complying with my proposal even as I quickly made my way to the other side of the castle.

A low rumble shook the ground as I saw Cord fire a blast that shook the foundations of the castle through the eyes of my Tyranid troops. Hermes was beginning to push Cord into a corner while the lesser Tyranids were slowly making their way through his advanced guard.

I had to hurry, lest Cord decided to bring down the castle roof down on top of my swarm.

* * *

 **4.3 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

The gentle clacking of fingers against keys could be heard as Taylor worked inside the workshop she had set up inside of her Pocket as she continued to work on a pet project of sorts. If one of a few people from her loop were there, they would have recognized the programming on the screen depending on what point in the loop they were at. After so long, the coding was familiar to Taylor herself from all the work she had done on it...

Dragon's coding.

Pausing for a moment to sip her tea, Taylor hummed as she allowed herself to drift off into memories for a moment in regards to when she had decided to work on unchaining Dragon. After a number of attempts at changing how things went had lead to worse outcomes, Taylor had despaired of ever being able to mitigate as much of Golden Morning as possible. A number of times, she had been locked up because she was an obviously insane Parahuman, a slip of her tongue causing the PRT to come down on her, or Cauldron deciding to use her in some way. It didn't help matters that Thomas Calvert, Coil, sometimes had her taken out. Or Contessa showed up to do something similar as she was going to reveal too much. Alternatively, she set things off too early and had to see those she cared for die.

Hence her falling deeper into despair.

It was around this point that when she looped into other Branches, she would spend her time pretending to be whoever she looped in as. Not stealthing like some loopers, outright submerging herself into the persona like one time she had done so as Twilight Sparkle. Mainly because it was both easier to forget her failures and because it gave her a taste of the type of life she had wanted from the start. Thankfully, some of the other loopers noticed what was going on and gave her both an ear to talk to as well as someone to help. Strangely, Gendo Ikari was one of the more helpful ones at that as he pointed out that if she has a large endgame with a global conspiracy involved, to start small and work her way up.

A laugh escaped from Taylor as she shook her head in amusement. No one would in their right minds would ever claim that unchaining Dragon would be something small or easy. But spending some of her free time during her loops on the project had helped both pass the time and given her something to do besides testing what changes she could make before they got too problematic. The fact that her relationship with Dragon was usually good no matter the loop helped. Sometimes the AI was a good friend, more then once she was like an older sister figure which Taylor liked having...

Other times she was the mother figure that part of her wanted.

Even if Dragon never looped, Taylor would be happy just freeing her. A glance to the side where a number of Saint's armors were caused the Anchor to snort as she was reminded that she needed to track him down again this loop. Right then though, her attention was grabbed by a ding and she opened her Pocket just enough to get a signal through and waited. On her screen, there the video of Sophia, Madison, and Emma walking down the street. Raising one hand, Taylor slowly counted down as above the three, a small drone flew. Then it dumped it's load of purple slime on all three of them and, as she watched the three screech as they slipped and slid in the goo, Taylor let herself have a small smile of satisfaction. Sure, she might not really care about the three anymore, but she was willing to prank them from time to time as a form of revenge. A flash of light showed her Clockblocker in costume staring at the three before he had to support himself from laughing too hard.

Tapping one finger against the desk, Taylor just hummed as she saved the video and nodded before glancing at the bag of Haribo sugar free gummie bears. "Now who should I slip you to..."

* * *

 **4.4 (BIOS-Pherecydes)**

* * *

I Awoke to the pleasant sensation of my arm being reduced to a pulpy mass of flesh and bone fragments. As the ceiling collapsed overhead and I was thrown towards the entrance to Cauldron's 'garden of Eden' I had time to reflect that it probably said something about the Loop that I still consider this a better Awakening point than the never to be sufficiently damned locker. Getting to my feet I stumbled slightly and braced myself against the wall, experience having taught me that Sveta was just as capable of doing what she had done to my arm to the rest of me. Not a pleasant way to end a Loop.

A quick examination proved that I still had Pocket access and I spent the next few moments going over My Loop memories as I waited for Sveta to recover enough to leave as she always did. No discrepancies that I could see so far, which was both good and bad. Good because I didn't have to worry about any unexpected variables popping up, bad because it didn't exactly leave me much time to try and kill Scion. I may have gotten better at convincing the world's cape's to fight together to take down the Golden Jackass, but it was typically a lot easier to do if I had time to set it up properly.

"I'm going to leave. I'm going where there aren't any people." Sveta spoke up. I couldn't help the pity I felt once again at the girl who had been unfairly forced into Cauldron's experimentation and was now little more than a backseat driver. As much as I wanted to though I couldn't help her, not yet, so I said nothing and waited for her to go.

Only once she was gone did I dare to move again, reaching into my Pocket and grabbing a small needle which I stuck into my nearly jellified arm. Suppressing a hiss as I felt my arm restoring itself, I sent out a Ping as I moved into the open space where Scion floated unmoving. The response was immediate and I smiled to myself as I reached out with my swarm, which by this point covered most of the planet, to try and locate the Looper.

Sadly it didn't look like any of the Undersiders were up and about this Loop, nor Golem further in Eden's tomb. However there was an unusual movement around Eden's corpse that caught my attention. Picking up the pace I soon caught up to Lung, Rachel and her dogs; they having crashed through any obstacles in their way as past experience had taught me they would, I had planned my course accordingly. Rachel offered me a hand up and I accepted the offer, taking a place on Bastard's back; Lung just tossed me an irritated glare and grunted. Beats having my ruined arm burnt off, let me tell you.

Accepting the unconscious Canary from Rachel, I turned my attention to the others. Golem, Cuff and Imp were doing fine at the moment, but I sent over a few bugs to direct them away from the more twisted geometries of the second Entity's corpse. Likewise, the remaining Cauldron capes, Harbingers and the Case 53s were safe as well; the bugs I sent over to them had a much higher proportion of venomous insects, just in case. If nothing else they would provide me with early warning in case they got any funny ideas.

Wordlessly I guided Rachel around the falling debris and towards paths which her dogs could use, Lung following in his loping gait as we moved towards the other groups. In short order we had regathered, and I passed Canary back to Rachel as I slid off Bastard. Turning to survey the area I froze.

Throughout the journey I had caught several glimpses of the unknown things which had caught my attention earlier, but always out of the corner of my eye or the edge of my currently limited swarm. Now however I finally had a chance to see them clearly. Small and white, deceptively cute with long ears surrounded by golden rings and unfeeling red eyes, they littered the entity's corpse like lice; freely passing back and forth between the fractal spaces where Eden disappeared into the well. "Incubator."

As one they paused from eating the remains of Scion's partner, turning to look at me, before returning to their feast. I caught the Number Man give me a speculative glance and I turned to look at him. "You know of these creatures?"

I considered not answering, but decided it didn't matter. "Sort of. What are they?"

He shrugged. "We aren't actually sure. They've been here since the beginning of Cauldron's formation, ever since the Entity's death. Until now I had assumed them to simply be parasites. The nature of their response to that title just now suggests that isn't accurate."

-I suppose that isn't far from the truth. Although perhaps symbiotes would be more accurate. After all, we Incubators were the source of the one's you call Entities.-

I stiffened at that, involuntarily, and the Incubator which had taken the time to approach us and speak turned to face me. -At least this Loop. I assume you are Awake correct? You needn't fear the others can't hear us right now.-

"Whoa, these little cat things are Scion's parents? How does that work? Do you think we can calm him down with some catnip?" Imp asked, picking up one of the Incubators.

"Put it down Imp, trust me you don't want to be anywhere near them. Golem what's Scion doing?" I asked, mentally responding to the Incubator. « _What do you mean you're responsible for Scion?_ »

"He's just floating there, in front of that other one." Golem answered.

-It's quite simple really. Our race discovered the primordial ancestors of these creatures and developed an entirely different methodology for salvaging the universe. Instead of the Magical Girl system, we created this Entity System. The creatures gained the ability to evolve and continue to survive, and in return we were given the ability to follow alongside them and benefit from their life-cycles in our desire to avert the universe's Heat Death.-

«So then, in this Loop, Scion is...»

-A Witch yes. Or a form of one anyway, the Entities are more accurately defined as a mix between Magical Girls and Witches. I admit the idea is rather fascinating, We Incubators would be very interested in seeing whether we could replicate the process in other Loops, unfortunately the time expenditure is far too demanding to provide any conclusive data more often than not. I suppose this is just one more method to be placed in reserve for after the Loops end. The recovered material I've assimilated from this Entity is more than sufficient to reproduce the effects at a later point.-

"Alright, then while he's distracted we should try and find a way out of here."

-That won't be necessary.-

Everyone turned back to face the Incubator, so I guessed that that meant the private conversation was over.

-There is nothing more to be gained from this part of the cycle, and it is likely that even with all of my bodies I won't be able to consume the entirety of this creature within the next few days. The one you call Scion is of no further use to us and so I will offer you this.- Another of the Incubators appeared holding a small black object in its mouth. -This is what is known as a Soul Gem. Think of Scion as being a puppet controlled by his true self; his, for lack of a better term, soul. Destroy the soul and the body will die.-

Without ceremony I stomped on the Soul Gem, and Scion dropped from the air like a bag of rocks. It was both oddly anticlimactic, and remarkably satisfying. Literally crushing Scion beneath my heel; whatever else happens this Loop this is going in my Top Ten favorite victories.

The Number Man gaped. "That's it? After all these years, that's all we had to do?"

-Essentially.-

"Why didn't you ever tell us?!" he growled.

Kyubey tilted his head. -You never asked.-

"...You know, aside from the whole 'being ultimately responsible for every bad thing that happened to us and the near genocide of humanity' I kinda like this thing! Can we keep it?" Imp asked, holding one of the Incubators like a plush toy.

I couldn't help it; I laughed. Definitely top ten.

* * *

 **4.2 cont (Solaris Requiem) (No Time For Games pt 3)**

* * *

How long had he been here? Khalon thought to himself glanced back to the stone wall and the bars of his cell. It was hard to keep track of time from the depths of this hellhole that he found himself in.

Trust your buddy, his father had told him. The dragon scoffed bitterly; some advice that was. He had trust his partner when he was led into this place. He had trusted his partner when they had participated in that god-forsaken tournament. He had still trusted him when they took him away bound in chains.

The betrayal still hurt even after all this time. His so called, 'buddy' hadn't even bothered to look back at him as he left. Not a single goodbye, not a single word. All that was left was a dragon that had been disposed of like a piece of trash.

The former buddy monster was shaken out of his thoughts by the shaking of the walls and castle. Things that were common around here, especially since monsters were able to go all out during Buddyfights. But for some reason those tremors and shockwaves had been going on a lot more frequently.

"What's going on?" his cellmate, a lion armed to the teeth with Danger World augments and cybernetics, asked. "It's not normally like this."

"Cord's probably going up against another challenger," the dragon sighed. "So another monster's going to be thrown into the pit. Just like the rest of us."

"Has anyone even won against him?" the lion asked as he placed his head in his hands. The glowing rings that pulsed with light restrained him into a much smaller and weaker form. Kha scoffed.

"No. Everyone who has went against Cord in a Buddyfight has lost. Why would this time be any different?"

"Because," a buzzing voice replied, shocking the two monsters and causing a ruckus amongst the other prisoners, "I'm not going to follow his rules." Kha's eyes, long having adjusted to the dark long ago, noticed a shadow outside of their cell. The light from the cell window cast a dark window on upon the new arrival. The figure was slender and tall; the black armor they wore was segmented like a shell of a bug, and golden lenses met the dragon's eyes.

"Let me guess, you're the new jailer?"

The lion seemed a bit more apprehensive as he sniffed the air, "No… she's human."

"What?" he hissed, as he got up from his seat from his seat.

"He's right. And I'm not your jailer. In fact," the figure pulled out a digital key and held it up for both of them to see, "I'm here to get all of you out of here." The room fell silent.

"What good will that do if you free us?" the dragon asked bitterly. "None of us have any other place to go. Don't you know? We were all discarded like items to be sold to highest bidder. Even if we CAN get out of here there's nothing left for us."

There were murmurs of agreement amongst the monster imprisoned. The figure tensed her posture shifted. The buzzing around her died down as she tilted her head and reached behind it, undoing a few clasps and pulling the mask from her face. Kha could see pale freckled skin, long hair, and two deep brown eyes that seemed to burn.

"And what will you do here? Rot away? To spend the rest of your lives in the darkness?" the figure's voice had changed. It was the voice of a girl; soft and quiet but burned with a cold flame. Even though her previous voice was loud and grated against the ears of every monster present, the figure's true voice was still heard just as well.

"So what if your buddies abandoned you? Are you going to give up just because of what a single kid did? I know all of you feel betrayed, I know all of you are hurting. Life is like that. Sometimes Murphy decides to screw you over and you end up in a place like this."

The figure's voice reached a fever pitch, slowly rising in volume and power, "I will be the first person to admit that people, humans especially, aren't the most moral of folks. They're stupid, forgetful, selfish, and power-hungry. But then you find that one person, that group of friends, the people that help you keep getting up in the morning. Sometimes you clash, sometimes you argue, but guess what? The world doesn't care. You just pick yourself up off of the ground and put one step in front of the other."

The murmuring of the other prisoners was growing louder as the figure continued to speak. Kha couldn't help but to find himself… drawn to her words and he listened without so much as making a single sound.

The girl held fire in her voice that slowly grew to a fever pitch; weaving words like a spider would weave a web. Her charisma hushed the crowd but paradoxically began to fill the entire building with a rising tide of sound.

"If you let yourself fall behind, to drown, then you'll be back where you started. So no matter what happens, no matter how many times you get hurt or how many times things happen over and over again: pick yourself up and keep moving. Because the moment that you give up, the moment you let the world bring you down: then you'll lose everything."

The girl held up the key to the cell door and unlocked it with a soft beep. Now she stood in front of Kha, her hair and armor glimmering in the light of the stars and the moon. The key pulses in her hand and she hands it over to the dragon, who almost dropped it with his shaking hands.

"Now," the girl's voice softens to a whisper that seemed to echo throughout the prison, "Are you going to let the world win? Or are you going to fight against it?"

There was a moment of silence, a moment of baited breath. And then the entire complex erupted in a roar of defiance. The prison was filled with sound, might, and wonderful defiance.

Kha could see a triumphant grin on the girl's face as he undid his own shackles. The pieces of tech fell to the ground with a clatter as the lights and circuitry turned dark.

"Who are you?" the dragon asked. The girl was pulling back her hair to put her mask back on, but she gave him a kind and gentle smile that made his body feel warm and filled with energy. It felt a lot like hope.

"You can call me Skitter," she replied.

-x-x-x-x-

The mind of Hermes, of the Swarmlord, was highly intelligent but lacked the one thing that would make it an individual. It was sentience without sapience; awareness without thought. It had no need for such things; the Queen provided anything that would be necessary for victory.

The Swarmlord was designed to be an answer to the problems that normal Tyranid tactics failed against. As such the number of times that the Swarmlord was called were few in number: but countless millennia of slaughter and conquest had granted it a veritable wealth of combat experience. It's opponent, although stronger than the rest, would not be able to stand against it.

The Swarmlord could feel the Queen's suppressed wrath through the Hive Mind, and the feeling of cold rage was broadcasted to every Tyranid around it. Their strength and vicious fury doubled as the robotic Dragoarms that Cord had called forth. Every time a Tyranid fell, rent apart by energy weapons or felled by blades and light, another one took its place with sharpened weapons and unbridled fury.

In contrast, Cord's minions could not be so easily replaced. A fatal blow would reduce the Dragoarm into a motes of light that would return to Cord. The dragon's forces were slowly beginning to dwindle while those of the Tyranids were only growing stronger with each loss.

Hermes felt the will of the Queen touch its mind. It bowed to Her will and let Her speak through it.

"Skitter told me to leave you alive," Hermes stated, the Queen speaking through its mouth. Cord fired a blinding beam of energy towards the Hive Tyrant, only for two of its bone blades to scatter the attack into motes of light. The Biomorph weapons glowed with psychic energy that energized and honed the blade. "But she didn't say that I couldn't make you wish that you were dead."

"You haven't been able to hurt me once," Cord rumbled, his digital voice now a clarion of digital noise and sound. His floated in the air upon wings of light with dozens of weapons orbiting around him. Several of them fired upon Hermes, only for the colossal abomination to vanish, teleporting behind Cord to strike again.

"I don't have to hit you to hurt you," Hermes growled as a burst of light and energy sent the Star Dragon to the other side of the arena. The dragon's natural abilities of flight were annoying to deal with. The feral, yet intelligent mind of the Swarmlord was beginning to become irritated.

 _Paroxysm_

Every single nerve, or augmented equivalent of such, was struck at once by the psychic attack. Cord toppled to the ground as the sensory overload of complete agony wreaked havoc on all of his senses. His conscious systems failed, sending the dragon crashing to the arena floor.

The dragon was unable to even vocalize the pain, unable to even turn off his pain sensors. But something told him that it wouldn't have helped.

The Dragoarms attempted to get defend their lord, but a wall of Tyranid flesh and chitin blocked their way. Hermes slowly approached the fallen Omni-Lord, his sabers glowing with harnessed light and latent energy.

"Do you yield?" he growled as he stopped the psychic attack. The dragon glared at him with the crimson visor that served as eyes. There was a build-up of photon energy in the dragon's maw before the attack was silenced by another wave of crippling agony.

"I said, do you yield?" Hermes repeated as the beam was extinguished. The dragon growled in defiance.

"What kind of monster are you?!" he spat. "How are you able to defeat me so easily? Me, one of the 8 strongest monsters in the Worlds?"

Hermes chuckled, a haunting sound, "I have fought against creatures that could destroy entire cities in seconds. I have seen entire cities and continents drown under the tide. I saw cities and planets fall into rot and decay endless times."

Hermes could feel the Queen's complete and utter contempt surge through the Synaptic link, burrowing down into the dragon below him.

"How could you, a slave dealer who only plays _games_ all day," Hermes spat, "ever hope to match me? How can you hope to fight against countless millennia of combat and conquest? You have forgotten how to fight and I have just proven that to all."

Cord growled, still defiant but refusing to meet Hermes' disgusted gaze.

"You don't have the right to call yourself a warrior, much less an 'Omni-Lord'. All I see is a spoiled brat who treats others of your kind like pawns. Like merchandise to be traded and given away like prizes." Hermes snarled. "Had Skitter not wanted you alive, I would have already cut your body apart and fed it to the Hive."

"You have no right to judge me. You're one of Yamigeddo's monsters. How many innocent people have you slaughtered? How many worlds has you master consumed?" Cord bit back, "Hypocrite."

Hermes laughed, shaking the ground with the force of its voice. It echoed through the arena and out of the castle, "Did you really think someone like Yamigeddo would waste time with dealing with a criminal organization? If Skitter was Yamigeddo then why would she turn you over to the Police? Why not kill you instead?"

The Tyranid shook his head while the smaller ones hissed at Cord's minions to stand back, "I don't have anything to do with this 'Yamigeddo' but I will tell you this. If these other 'Omni-Lords' are as strong as you are then this world is doomed."

Hermes rolled his shoulders before two more Tyranids emerged, one bore wings and a fanged maw while the other was around the size of a human with two pairs of bestial arms. The winged one screeched before it flew out of the window with a rush of air and sound. The smaller one walked up to Cord with a predatory gait while Hermes restrained Cord with a burst of Paroxysm. It made eye contact with the dragon before its eyes flashed.

 _Hypnotic Gaze_

And Cord knew no more.

* * *

 **4.5 (BIOS-Pherecydes)**

* * *

Leet sat in his workshop, the sound of music and soldering echoing back from the walls in all directions. He and Über had just finished up one of their broadcasts, a Tron style smash and grab that had actually worked out pretty well for a change, and he was currently checking their webratings. Up from last week, he noted; but a frown tugged at his lips as he noted the current number one. They'd shown up the previous week and taken the rating board by storm, all of his and Über's efforts were going unnoticed and it was starting to bug him.

"Hah! Take that you cheating bastard! Yet again I reign supreme!" Über's voice called out, jerking him from his brooding. With a chuckle, he figured what the hell and clicked on the link to the latest episode.

-x-x-x-x-

 _The lights flickered on a darkened space, a very creepy vibe emanating from the monitor. The doors creaked ominously, while the darkness seemed to move almost like a living thing, and a dog howled in the background; the noises somehow muted. A roach scuttled quickly across the lens of the camera abruptly before the view zoomed in on a darkened figure sitting in a chair; just barely visible in the shifting blackness which surrounded it. Slowly the miasma began to thin, shafts of sunlight shining through and illuminating a rather nice room._

 _In the far corner a figure wearing a bike helmet and emanating shadows played a racing game with another person in a ren faire getup. They didn't bother acknowledging the camera, too absorbed by their game, but the previously darkened figure in the chair turned her masked face towards the camera with a vulpine grin. "Hello all, and welcome back to your new favorite webshow. I'm Tattletale."_

 _A tall, lanky figure in a dark costume came into the shot; taking a seat on the couch, and high-iving Tattletale in the process. She leaned back confidently as she face the camera, an amused tone in her voice as she spoke. "And I'm Skitter."_

 _ **"And this, is Skit For Tat!"**_

 _"As always, don't bother trying to trace the broadcast; because as you know," She leaned in closer to Skitter as the spoke in unison._

 _ **"Tinker tech is bullshit!"**_

 _"Now some of you may recall that, contrary to PRT reports, our good friend Skitter here played a major role in taking down Lung about a week ago."_

 _Skitter faced the camera straight on and spoke in a deadpan. "I made his crotch rot off. Accidentally."_

 _Both the boys in the background flinched, and Tattletale laughed. Turning back to the camera, she continued with a grin. "What you may not know, is that a dear friend of his decided that she was going to try and break him free again. And guess what folks? She's here with us now!"_

 _A canned applause track played for a few seconds._

 _"Say hello to our special guest for the night: Bakuda!"_

 _The camera shifted to show a figure, clearly bound to a chair despite being covered in a layer of insects and struggling violently with her head covered in a cloud of darkness._

 _"Grue, if you would?"_

 _The darkness parted briefly, revealing a blindfolded face covered in a modified gasmask of some sort. "inished the fucking Endbringers won't come near the stains on the wall that used to be your fucking faces! You hear me you worthless piec" The darkness closed back in._

 _"Give her a hand! Bakuda everyone! Skitter, would you like to explain to the people what our guest was up to before being invited onto the show?"_

 _Skitter nodded her head, an air of amusement somehow radiating from her. "Bakuda decided to start recruiting while Lung was away. The PRT recently found themselves with a influx of ABB members happily turning themselves in after we let them know that their boss was coming on the show."_

 _Tattletale spoke up. "For those who don't know, Bakuda's recruitment methods tend to have a zero percent refusal rate. Either you say yes, or you go boom. She likes to put little bombs in people's heads so they can't back down, and then set them off for shits and giggles. And her bombs do a lot more than just blow up. Some of you may have noticed Brockton Bay's newest iceburg, that's all her."_

 _"And us." Skitter added._

 _Tattletale just grinned. "Luckily for all her conscripted troops, the Undersiders decided to pay a little visit to the ABB when they attempted to capture our good friend Bitch; who you may know as Hellhound."_

 _Skitter looked at the camera again. "Don't call her that though. That's not her name."_

 _"How right you are Skitter. And luckily for out adoring audience, we just so happen to have footage of our little counter-ambush from earlier. Let's take a look."_

 _The video shifted to a monstrous four armed creature standing in the shower wearing a shower-cap that didn't do very much at all considering it's lack of anything resembling hair. Catching sight of the camera, it appeared to panic; pulling the shower curtain shut hard enough that it ripped off the bathroom wall._

 _The image switched back to Skitter, Tattletale and the Undersiders; the latter of which was stood with arm outstretched, staring down at the former who held her head in her hands with a shit-eating grin on her face while Grue and Regent laughed loudly in the background. Looking up with a wink, Tattletale smirked. "Whoops. Wrong footage. Let's try again."_

 _The view changed to a high ground image of a deserted part of the Boat Graveyard. Bitch could be seen walking two of her dogs, pulling on the leash once when the lead animal strained ahead and then waiting while it calmed down. Abruptly roughly a dozen figures rushed her, apparently catching her by surprise and pinning her to the ground as her dogs began to swell in size. A new figure stepped into the picture, resolving into a clear shot of Bakuda._

 _"Ah ah ah ah, can't have that now." She pulled out a small object with a dozen blinking lights. "Order your mutts to heel or I spread them across the side of the building."_

 _Bitch snarled furiously, but gave a sharp whistle. Both the dogs obeyed the command, sitting in place as a pair of goons warily stood guard._

 _"Good. Now then—"_

 _That was as far as she got before being blindsided by a third dog, roughly the size of a small horse. Before she could recover she was swarmed by what looked like the entire city's population of bees, including hundreds of ridiculously_

 _large wasps, and dozens of foot long centipedes. Around her a living tide of ants carried her bomb off the pier into the water before crawling over the exposed areas not covered by the bees._

 _Skitter and Tattletale calmly moved in, as Regent and Grue quickly dealt with the minions holding Bitch hostage. Tattletales voice sounded out. "I'd quit struggling if I were you. The bugs on you right now are the asian giant hornet, tarantula wasp, amazon giant centipede and a nest of bullet ants. Every one of those has a bite sting that measures at the top of the chart and can bring down a full grown man. I'd think pretty hard about my next move if I were you."_

 _Smirking, she blew a kiss towards the camera before kneeling down by Bakuda's feet; the ants moving aside for her like a living carpet. Pulling off Bakuda's left shoe, the captured villain began struggling yet again. Regent waved casually and she stiffened tensely, long enough for Tattletale to remove a pair of toerings from her foot. Displaying them with a wide grin to the terrified men being held by Grue and the newly freed Bitch, she waved to get their attention. "See these? This is how she was going to blow up the bombs in your necks. Spread the word, she's got no power over you anymore. Maybe head into the PRT, see if they can get the bombs out."_

 _The men's eyes widened before they sagged with relief, tears running down their faces as they thanked her profusely._

 _Tattletale shrugged casually. "No problem. It's what we do. Grue?"_

 _The area rapidly swelled with darkness before the feed switched back to the Undersider's lair. Tattletale smirked. "In and out in five minutes. Final results: one supervillain captured and immobilized, one supervillain still behind bars, and the ABB gutted as half their conscripted army turns themselves in to get their bombs removed."_

 _"Yeah, too bad you forgot to deactivate the bomb." Regent added in an amused tone._

 _Tattletale's grin slipped for a second before she shrugged. "Eh, maybe the iceburg will finally get the people in charge off their asses to clean up the junk in the Boat Graveyard."_

 _Skitter snorted._

 _Tattletale put on a imitation of affront. "What? I can dream can't I? It's not like they'll just leave the dockworkers to try and clean up the mess_ again _. They are supposed to be the protectors of the city after all, it would be pretty bad PR if they just left potentially dangerous Tinker affected materials lying around. Just think of the scandal!"_

 _The amusement in her tone was blatantly obvious to everyone._

 _"I doubt they're going to just jump at the bait like that." Grue chimed in, his voice ringing with a hollow echo._

 _Skitter shrugged. "Even if they know she's baiting them, it's true. They can't take the chance that something might be leftover from Bakuda's explosion, and since it's right on top of the scrap in the Boat Graveyard they'll have to clean up the whole mess if they want to be sure."_

 _"And that's just a_ coincidence _, I'm sure. It's not like you could have had your creepy crawlies take the bomb somewhere_ else _." Regent replied._

 _Skitter just shrugged again. "I have to live here too. Maybe I want my hometown to_ not _be a slowly decaying wreck. If dropping a tinker tech bomb somewhere the authorities_ have _to pay attention will do that, why not?"_

 _"Why not indeed. After all," she shared a look with Skitter._

 _ **"Fucking Tinkers."**_

 _Turning back to the camera, she gave a wide grin. "That's it for today folks. We've got to see a scarily competent woman in a suit about having a_ blast _with a multiversal space whale. Bakuda, say bye to the viewers."_

 _The darkness surrounding the still struggling Bakuda split for a second, "testines down your nec" before closing in again._

 _"Or not. Ladies, gentlemen and undefined others, I'm Tattletale."_

 _"I'm Skitter. And this has been,"_

 _"_ _ **Skit For Tat!"**_

-x-x-x-x-

Closing the browser with leaden fingers, Leet shakily glanced at the job offer pinned to his corkboard. He and Über had shown up at the meeting place at the right time, a spare costume ready for their temporary ally, only to be stood up. Über hadn't minded so much, seeing as they'd been paid in advance with the knowledge they wouldn't dare back out and Leet had grudgingly agreed. That was one less invention he could make after all, and it hadn't even been used!

Now though, he was counting his lucky stars. He made a mental note not to get on the bad side of the Undersiders if possible. If the ABB had been taken down that easily, he didn't even want to _know_ what his and Über's chances were.

* * *

 **4.6 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

Looking across at the girl on the other side of the booth, Sprog raised an eyebrow as she sipped her tea. "So... Taylor, right?" At her blink, he continued as she reached up and fixed her gi. "If you don't mind, can I ask you something?"

Taylor glanced over to where Minerva, in her human form, was getting some snacks for them before nodding. "Shoot."

Slowly tapping his fingers against the table, Sprig hummed a bit before he shrugged. "You're from one of those superhero Branches, right? So why exactly are you interested in learning martial arts?"

Raising an eyebrow, Taylor set down her tea and then leaned her chin against her fist. "Why wouldn't I be?"

With a snort, Sprog shook his head and then sighed a bit. "Normally superheroes and the like don't bother. Don't get me wrong, both Minerva and I like having a fellow looper around. But it's still kind of odd, the two of us at least use it as a way to spend loops."

For almost a minute, Taylor was quiet before she answered, just as Minerva set a slice of cake in front of her and took a seat. "Baseline, my power is mainly controlling bugs. It's pretty amazing what I can do with it, but... I don't like relying on just that. My body is just a normal squishy human for the most part, so anything that can help me out I'll go for."

Raising an eyebrow as she swallowed her own bite of cake, Minerva frowned a bit. "I would have thought that there would be means in your home Branch..."

All Taylor did was shake her head with a chuckle as she waved around a fork. "I don't have all that much time to learn unfortunately. So Hub-Loops and near Hub-loops like your own I spend picking up skills like different ways of fighting."

More then a little thoughtful, Sprog tapped his fork against his plate before nodding. "Well, just ask and I can teach you what I know. We still got about four years before this loop ends after all."

That caused Taylor to perk up and smile a bit. "That would be helpful. Any ideas in particular?"

Rubbing his chin, Sprog shared a look with Minerva who shrugged a bit before he turned back to Taylor. "Considering what I know of your Branch... You learn any parkour yet?"

Interested, Taylor leaned forward with a grin. "No, but I've been meaning to."

Just snorting at her expression, Sprog grabbed one of the napkins and quickly wrote down some information before handing it over to Taylor. "That's some names and numbers for some guys I know that do parkour and free running as well as where they like to hang out."

Blinking, Taylor looked it over in thought before draining most of her tea. "There's a difference?"

As he shook his head, Sprog let out a chuckle. "Yeah, there's a difference between them. Just don't ask that bunch unless your ready for several hours of explanations and arguments over which is better. You'll walk away more confused then when you began." For a brief moment he paused and then shook his head and continued. "Anyways, I'll put in some good words for you with them. They got several 'training' areas and if your lucky, they might take you to their yearly trip to some meets. Some of those places are just _nuts_."

While nodding, Taylor put the napkin away as she was already making plans. "Thanks, I really appreciate the help."

Minerva just chuckled and waved her off. "It's not a problem, dear. Neither me nor Sprog mind helping anyone out."

That done, the topic soon turned toward various bits of gossip and the like they had heard.

* * *

 **4.7 (Harry Leferts)**

* * *

Raising a hand, I knocked at the door which opened a few moments later letting me peak my head in. "Sir? I got the new information that you wanted."

Inside the office, the centaur blinked as he shifted the carrot he had been eating in his mouth to the other side and adjusted the tin foil hat on his head. "Just put them... somewhere, Taylor."

Even though internally I was smiling, I didn't show it as I quickly found a place to drop the data sticks off. As I did so, I noticed my reflection in one of the screens and placed a bit of hair over my pointed ear. Sure, I had gotten used to my looks over the years, but that didn't mean that I wasn't self-conscious at times. Sue me. I was still me but was an elf. I was even tall for a female elf, not that meant much when "Tall" is still less then five feet. Still, I was looking rather good for someone who was in their eighties by this point in the loop.

That said, I had been enjoying this loop. Sure, there we gangs running around like the B'wa Kell, but compared to the Empire 88 and Azn Bad Boys? I'll take them any day of the week. Heck, I'd take them over the Merchants as well. Which said something considering that I thought that fire chucking goblins were less of a problem then what I dealt with back in Brockton Bay. Though the image of Lung licking his eyes like goblins gave me both giggles and a shudder of disgust.

Shouting down the hall caused me to blink though and raise an eyebrow. "Who is Beetroot shouting at now?"

Foaly just choked a bit on his carrot stick before gave me a mock stern look. "You shouldn't call the Commander that, you know. What if he overhears you?"

All I did though was shrug a bit and grinned. "No worse then you at times."

Softly scoffing, Foaly shook his head as he adjusted the cameras. "However, _I_ am irreplaceable, Taylor. Unlike you." Rolling my eyes, I just shook my head in amusement. I still didn't have much respect for authority, though even I admitted that Root was better then some I'd met. "And... it seems that he's shouting at Holly, again."

Facepalming, I could only shake my head at that. Sometimes I wondered who had it worse in regards to authority, Holly or I. "Again?"

With a shrug, Foaly turned away from his monitors and looked down at the data stick I had given him. "Again... is this the upgrades for the DNA Cannons?"

Now a grin crossed my face. "Yeah, I managed to get a small boost in power from the plasma without causing issues elsewhere." That was yet another reason that I loved this loop, thanks to years of working with Tinker technology, some of it mine in those variants where I was a Tinker, I had a good feel for high technology. And the stuff that the People used? Sure, it was advanced in comparison to normal human technology from my baseline, but nowhere near as bad as Tinker tech which meant it was a lot easier to figure out. Heck, I even had some ideas from what I've worked on that I could use back home. I was so going to reverse engineer Opal Koboi's wings to use, they looked a lot more insectile then most while I could fly. And with some modifications, I could fly around the world without stopping, especially if I hooked up the miniature nuclear reactors... Blinking as I noticed Foaly saying something, I gave him a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I was deep in thought."

Shaking his head with a snort, Foaly sighed. "I kind of noticed... I was asking if you've been to the surface to recharge your magic recently?"

A soft smile spread across my face as I nodded. "Three days ago during the full moon as a matter of fact. So I'm fully recharged." I snapped my fingers and a blue spark shot off. The fact that said magic could heal myself or others, even reattaching limbs, meant that I hopefully kept it after this loop if nothing else. Having proven that, both Foaly and I soon slipped into conversation about other matters.

* * *

 **4.2 cont (Solaris Requiem) (No Time For Games pt 4)**

* * *

"What's going on over there?" Jack grit his teeth. He could feel the oppressive weight of… something in the air. It felt like some sort of static and interference, one that was more mental than electronic.

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Tasuku replied as the duo made their way closer to the castle. As a precaution he pulled on the power welling within him. A card flew from his deck and burned with golden light It flashed and coalesced into an armored hilt with a blade of light.

The two left particles of light in their wake as they made their way closer to their destination. Both of them hardened their resolve and pressed on towards the eerie castle. Tasuku looked forward and fought back a wince as he remembered some… painful memories from baseline. But before he could dwell his closest friend had already flown close to him, giving the younger Looper some much needed emotional support.

I will always be here for you; the dragon spoke with his actions. Tasuku gave Jack a small smile before a creature approached them with its beating wings. It bore no weapons, but its posture appearance made Darkness Dragon monsters look tame.

Tasuku did not recognize the shape or type of monster; nor did he even remember seeing anything like the flying Monster in front of him in Baseline. Its body was red and misshapen with bone-white armor and jagged plating. It looked at them and Tasuku could not help but feel a shiver down his spine.

"Tasuku Ryuenji and Jack-knife Dragon?" the creature asked, its voice loud and guttural.

"Yes. What do you want?" Tasuku asked with his sword at the ready. Jack already had his weapons charged up and ready to fire. The creature tilted its head before it spoke once more.

"Skitter is waiting in the courtyard with the monsters that the Club had imprisoned. Lord Hermes has Suzaku Kenran, or rather Variable Cord, restrained and in custody inside of the castle."

"Lord… Hermes?" Tasuku asked, somewhat shocked that Suzaku was defeated that easily. "How did he-"

"You'll see when you get there," the winged messenger interrupted. "How long until the rest of the Buddy Police get here?"

"They're busy rounding up the people trying to escape," Jack explained. "Neither of us know when they will be able to assist us."

The creature nodded before changed directions with a flap of his wings, "Follow me. I will lead you to Skitter. Then we can deal with Variable Cord when the time comes."

"Thank you- sorry, but I don't know your name," Tasuku replied. The creature looked back at Tasuku before shrugging.

"I don't have one. Only a handful of Tyranids, such as Lord Hermes, were given a name by our Queen."

"Your Queen?"

The creature grinned, revealing razor sharp teeth as he did so, "You'll meet her eventually." The creature looked forward and flew forwards, making sure to lower his flight speed for the two people he was guiding to follow him.

-x-x-x-x-

Keeping my Cape identity and my non-cape identity separate had some perks that I had not realized until I had begun establishing the Tyranids, or rather the Tyrants in my home Loop, as separate entities.

None of the Hive, save Hermes and other special Tyranids, were even capable of basic thought much less being able to hold a conversation. But over time I had become very good at staying "in character" whenever I controlled a member of my swarm to talk to another person. I suppose that my time as the Tyranid Queen helped me understand their base natures had helped somewhat, but the separation between Skitter and Taylor had helped me practice my acting.

Once Tasuku and Jack had finally the large gathering of monsters I had the Tyranid Gargoyle put itself back into my Pocket. I really, REALLY, didn't want to cause any unnecessary panic onto the newly freed monsters. They had enough bad experiences as it stood.

I frowned as the officer and his partner slowly descended onto the stone floor of the courtyard; that problem would have to be something I rectified… Perhaps I could modify a Tyranid Prime to look a bit less nightmarish and use that as a human-sized proxy. I couldn't exactly bring out Hermes every single time I went on patrol. And even then I could probably play up the modified Prime as an independent Cape in and of itself.

I pushed aside the thoughts as the cybernetic dragon touched down with his partner landing softly on his two feet.

"Are you Skitter?" the boy asked. "I'm-"

"I know who you are, Tasuku Ryuenji," I replied as I looked at the blue-haired teen through my mask. "Let's get straight to the point. Cord is currently incapacitated and his troops have withdrawn forcibly. It'd probably be best that we secure him as soon as possible or else they might end up trying to free him."

"What about the monsters here?" he asked as the large group of freed prisoners began to chatter excitedly to themselves.

"We'll watch over them," one of my two newly recruited 'spies' spoke up. "Skitter contacted us earlier and we made a deal with her. We gave her the keys to the west tower and helped round up everyone here."

"Very well," Jack rumbled. "Now then, Tasusku, shall we be off?"

The officer looked a bit hesitant before he acquiesced, leaving the three of us to walk towards the Coliseum.

I felt two Pings go off immediately at the same time before I turned back around. I cautiously pinged back and that was acknowledged with a nod from both Tasuku and Jack.

"Which one of you is the Anchor?" I asked.

"Neither of us. Our anchor, Drum, and his Buddy haven't joined the Police force yet. Neither of them were able to assist us," Tasuku explained. Jack frowned as he looked at me.

"Why didn't you answer our Ping?" the dragon asked. I blinked in confusion.

"You sent out a Ping?" I asked dumbfounded and a bit embarrassed, "Must have missed it."

"How do you miss a Ping?" Tasuku inquired, "It's pretty obvious."

"I'm still new to the Loops," I admitted, "I haven't done enough fused Loops to get the hang of identifying it quite yet."

"It's impressive that you beat Cord at a Buddyfight as a new Looper," Tasuku remarked as he tried to be friendly. "He's pretty good at it."

I sighed, "Like I told the Monsters that asked me, I didn't beat him in Buddyfight. I didn't have time to play a 'children's card game'."

"Then how-"

"How else?" I replied, "I beat him in a real battle. He's been playing that game for so long that he forgot how to fight." I rolled my eyes at the absolutely flabbergasted look on Tasuku's and Jack's faces.

"That just raises more questions," Tasuku hissed. "How did you manage to beat one of the strongest non-Loopers here?"

"That was one of your strongest non-Loopers?" I raised an eyebrow. I suppose that he was a bit stronger than I thought. But compared to Scion, Leviathan, and Behemoth, he was a nothing more than a dragon-shaped nightlight! "How the heck did they handle this 'Yamigeddo' thing in Baseline then?"

"Gao and Drum beat him in a Buddyfight," Tasuku explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world. I stared at the blue-haired officer.

"You can't be serious."

"It's how we solve most of the problems in the Loop," Jack shrugged. "Yamigeddo was too strong in baseline for the 8 Omni-Lords to defeat normally. But it's a different story for Buddyfight. That was the only way that we had a chance of winning."

Tasuku nodded, "I managed to talk my way out of a losing battle by convincing a Monster to play against me rather than to fight. I know it sounds dumb to other Loopers like yourself but it works for us."

I really envied them. I seriously did… If my world worked like that things like Scion and the Endbringers would have been resolved so much quicker and cleaner. Millions of people wouldn't have had to die so pointlessly.

"You have no idea how lucky you are that your major problems are so easily solved," I sighed. "If my world worked the way that yours did then it would be much simpler."

"How bad is your Loop?" Tasuku asked. I shook my head. I didn't trust him just yet, but I supposed giving him some information wouldn't hurt.

"Let me put it this way: during my entire time here as a vigilante I stopped a drunk monster, a few mugging incidents, and a kid that tried to rob a candy store." I replied, resisting the urge to laugh or facepalm at the sheer ridiculousness of the last crime as I did so, "Back at home I usually end up dealing with hostage situations, armed robbery, looting, drug dealers, gang-warfare, gunfights, and other things like that."

I could see both the dragon and his human partner wince with every single word I said. I could sort of sympathize with them: fused Loop culture shock was a bitch.

"In the grand scheme of things, you two lucked out with the Loop you lived in," I replied as the three of us finally arrived at the ruined stadium. "Compared to my world yours is pretty much heaven. Back on my world, you couldn't solve things with just by playing a game. The cleanest solution to some of our problems still ended up with a lot of people dying. You have 10 worlds, filled with millions of people and monsters, all living together in peace without so much as a single comment of racism or species hate. Trust me, you don't want to take your world for granted."

Tasuku seemed lost for words but and Jack wanted to say something but kept his mouth shut. I did a wonderful job at killing the conversation, go me.

"We're here…" I stated as I stepped over a few fragments of debris. The Tyranid Warriors and Hive Guards stood at attention, still keeping formation around Cord. I had a Broodlord keep the dragon's human form under control and sedated with Hypnotic Gaze.

"Skitter," I had Hermes grunt. "Took you long enough."

"I was busy freeing the rest of Cord's prisoners, sue me," I deadpanned. It was really weird talking to myself through Hermes, but this sort of act was something that I practiced constantly. If anyone knew my full capabilities, a kill order would be the least of my worries. Normally I would abandon the charade but I needed to keep up the act until Cord was in custody.

"That's your Buddy?!" Tasuku gaped as he looked at Hermes. I could see his grip tighten around his blade while his partner stood at the ready. I would have to correct him later but for now I'd let him draw his own conclusions

"In a way," I replied as I pulled a pair of shackles and the master key I got earlier from my Pocket. I had snagged it from Cord's prison cells since I figured that they might come in handy. I handed it off to Tasuku who finally seemed to manage to convince himself that Hermes wasn't going to attack him.

"Thanks," he replied as he took the shackles and the key in hand. I had my Tyranid troops part to let Tasuku through as he went to officially arrest Variable Cord. I kept an eye out and my guard up as he did so.

So far so good. But knowing Murphy I was waiting and ready for the other shoe to drop.

* * *

 **4.8 (wildrook)**

* * *

What. The f**k.

"Of all the things for Scion to arrive to," I muttered, "it's Dubstep."

And it wasn't just ANY Dubstep. It was the kind of dubstep that signaled the arrival of an ultimate being in all his glory.

Or an attacking vampire squirrel.

Or a vampire squirrel created by an ultimate being that can manipulate life at will and considered copulation between others completely useless.

...Where the hell were these tangents coming from?

...Oh sh*t. He's staring at me.

"My apologies." Huh? "That always happens when one of us is in the area. I take it you aren't familiar with this?"

Endbringers arrive via destruction and dubstep this Loop. I knew they were out there, but this?

"Not as much as I should be," I replied.

And I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Contessa showing up and enhancing my shard to take him down while losing my humanity. Coil looking at the right timeline to see whether or not his chances of him killing Scion would succeed, although how I'm able to feel it might be related to the Time Loops as a whole. Him looking for the wedding between Dad and the Simurgh as he's the latter's best man.

...And I did not need the mental image of Scion in a dress!

"Oh, there you are," a male voice said, catching my...attention... "I take it you're looking for directions to the nearest town?"

What the hell was Jack Slash doing here?

"Ah, Jackie!" Scion said. "I got lost and the step started flaring. So, are we still on for Friday?"

Urge to kill...subsiding because Scion called Jack Slash Jackie.

"Oh yeah," he said. Jack then looked at me and said something that was worse than all of the thoughts I had combined. "Sorry about the noise. My boyfriend tends to get lost when he arrives, so I usually look for fellow supers as a focus point to see if he's nearby. Thanks for the help."

And with that, they left, leaving me horrified.

It's not the relationship part that bugged me. What was horrifying was the mere concept of Scion and Jack Slash dating. The guy who's going to destroy the world and the man who held the freaking trigger to unleash the golden bullet...are dating this Loop.

The moment they were far enough away, I started screaming. And I did not stop until morning.

* * *

 **4.9 (Solaris Requiem)**

* * *

"This is completely unfair..." I groaned as I stared at the character sheet that Dragon sent me. Although the AI wasn't Awake yet I still enjoyed talking with her. After a few chats on the PHO forums I eventually got invited to the weekly online Tabletop game that Dragon had hosted.

"That's what you get for trying to break the system," the AI chided. I could hear the smugness in her voice.

"Yeah Skitter," Narwhal chimed. "Tin here was mad that you ended up killing the big bad during his first appearance."

"There was no way the developers could have missed that!" I protested. "It was so obvious that those two abilities would make it able to-"

"Hit a single person for infinite damage if you rolled enough successes," Dragon twitched. "Yes, I know. I also took the liberty of sending it to the publishers. They're very interested in seeing how you found that kind of exploit."

I blinked, "Wait, so THEY were the ones who kept sending me job offers for playtesting games? I thought that those were just spam. There were at least 10 different companies offering to pay me to check their game systems."

Narwhal laughed, "Oh that's hilarious. Now you can get a full-time job trying to break tabletop game systems. How are you going to balance it out between school and crime-fighting now?"

I glanced back at the Hermes, shrunken down to human size, poring over the rules of the game I was currently playing and I grinned. "Oh, I think I'll manage."

* * *

 **4.2 cont (Solaris Requiem) (No Time For Games pt 5)**

* * *

As I left school the very next day I was still waiting for said shoe to drop. After I let Tasuku make his arrest I quickly left the scene in stealth. But not before the Looper had given me some information on where to meet up to talk about the more delicate aspects of the current Loop. Said piece of info was the address of a certain house that he told me to come visit today.

After the arrest of Suzaku Kenran the Buddyfight club had scattered, leaving nothing behind. The media had a field day talking about it with various interviews and reports about the freed Monsters. Majority of the monsters there had declined to stay in the human world and return to their own native dimensions. Others decided to give humans another chance and would try to choose another Buddy again.

I had done my part in freeing them. The other monsters had to choose what to do with themselves. People, monsters included, were stubborn if nothing else. Whatever their decision was, I mentally wished them good luck with whatever path they chose.

With those thoughts out of my mind I glanced down at the note that Tasuku had given me and double checked the street I was on. The house before me was a pretty large two-floored house with windows and a fence. It was much more decadent than the small house that I shared with my dad, myself, and my… step-mom.

Dad had gotten remarried to a Japanese woman after my own mom had died. To be blunt I hated her. It wasn't her fault of course: she tried to fit in and to be kind to me. But it was hard, no impossible, for me to even consider opening up to her. The Loops must have had a sick sense of humor to replace my real mom with this… fake.

But I was willing to deal with her and bite my tongue for Dad's sake, even if he hadn't been Activated yet. If I hadn't known him as well as I did, I would have thought he forgotten about her. But every so often there would be a brief moment where I knew he thought about her.

I cleared those thoughts from my head before they caused the Tyranid Hive to go into a panic and began to walk to the door. I looked at the door, double-checking the address as I did so before I rang the doorbell.

"Coming!" a boy's voice called out as I heard the patter of feet on wood. The locks on the door were unlocked as the painted slab of wood swung open. The boy was around a good couple of years younger than me: around 12 or 13 years old. He still had his school uniform half-on with the jacket open and a black school cap over his blazing red hair.

"So you're the new Looper, huh?" the boy looked up. "Tasuku said that you'd drop by."

"And you're the Anchor?" I inquired. He sure looked like one: especially with that red hair of his. I had seen enough cartoons to be able to tell stuff that he'd probably be the main character.

The boy grinned before he pumped a fist in the air, "Alright, Drum owes me tray of Takoyaki!"

I blinked, "What?"

The boy chuckled, "Oh nothing. Drum and I made a bet that you would think I'm the Anchor. I'm not though: Drum's the real Anchor. I actually was the last person to Awaken."

"I see…" I replied, "And this 'Drum' person is your Buddy I'm guessing?"

The boy nodded quickly before he stepped aside, "Come on, he's training in the dojo right now. Come on in and we'll talk you through what basically happens during this Loop. I'm Gao by the way."

I was taken aback by the teenager's bombastic behavior before I realized that I hadn't even introduced myself, "I guess you can call me Taylor," I fumbled as I took off my shoes and went inside.

The walkthrough of the house was pretty brief, but I could tell that Gao's family was somewhat wealthy. His mother worked overseas while his father stayed at home. It was no surprise they could afford to host a Monster for so long.

I managed to drown out about how Gao gushed about Buddyfight after the first few seconds, giving only a few nods and acting like I was somewhat interested. I organized the various bugs within my range to set themselves up in certain areas, as well as tag Gao with a couple of bugs in the meantime.

The red-haired teen led eventually led me to the dojo in the house before I finally stopped tuning Gao out. "Yo, Drum! We've got the new Looper here! You done training yet?" he called out. The shifting of feet, the clattering of metal, and the sound of a person in the middle of a martial arts kata filled the air, suddenly came to a complete stop.

"Come in!" a voice called, one that was a bit older than Gao's. It sounded like someone who was in his early 20's or late teens. Gao pulled the door open and I stared at the person, or rather the Monster in the middle of the dojo.

The dragon stood at a good 6 feet tall and was covered in what looked like light metal armor with a mane of golden hair. He had one of those open Chinese vests along with those pants you saw in those kung-fu movies. It… didn't actually cover that much and I was able to see his well-built arms and scaly abs that made Brian's look plain.

Dear god, those could sharpen swords, I realized in a daze. Those strong arms that had just the right amount of muscle without being plain gross, and the glorious 6-pack that could-

"Oi, my eyes are up here!" Drum called out, snapping me out of my beef-cake, or rather scale-cake, induced trance. "I'm flattered, but I prefer ladies with scales," he quipped.

Lisa and Alec must never find out about this, I thought to myself as I shoved those images into a dark corner in the back of my mind. Who knows what might have happened if they did find out about this… incident. Of course knowing Lisa, she would find out within seconds of me meeting her. The last thing I wanted was Alec to think I was a furry or something. He and Aisha would never let me hear the end of it if they found out.

"So," Drum began. "You're the new Looper, huh?"

"Yep! And she thought I was the Anchor," Gao cackled. The dragon groaned.

"There's still other bet that we made though," he pointed out. "If I win then they cancel each-other out."

"Other bet?" I asked. Gao beamed at me.

"What do you think of Buddyfight?" he asked. I blinked as he almost seemed to vibrate in place.

"I… think it's okay?" I tried as I pretended to be interested. Gao's face fell and Drum grinned.

"Told ya," the dragon grinned. "Now we're even."

The boy visibly slumped as his mood plummeted into the depths of despair.

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked as a literal rain-cloud seemed to hang over him. The dragon didn't seem bothered.

"He'll bounce back eventually," he shrugged, "But don't worry, most of the Loopers don't like Buddyfight that much. It's actually how we usually tell if someone's a guest Looper or not."

"I… see," I frowned as Gao finally managed to bring himself back from the pits of despair.

"Alright then," Drum began, "So basically there are three different things that go on in our Loop: the Gaen Cup, Yamigeddo, and the World Buddy Cup."

"You don't have to participate in the Gaen and the World Cup if you don't want to," Gao replied. "Drum, Bal, and I have got it handled."

"Is this Bal one of your Buddies?" I asked. Gao nodded while Drum looked a bit sulky and irritated.

"I end up getting called back into Dragon World for the World Buddy Cup on. Bal ends up replacing me for that time," he explained, gritting his fangs. "He's from a pretty recent expansion and I have no clue how long it will be before he Awakens."

"We'll be fine, Drum," Gao reassured him but the dragon didn't look convinced.

"He's a newborn dragon! He literally hatches out of an egg when you first meet him!" Drum growls, "Until he Awakens I refuse to trust your safety to him. If something like Yamigeddo happens again then responsibilities to my clan be damned, I will come over to help."

"We're getting off-topic," I cut both of them off. "What happens during the Loop?"

Drum and Gao shared a glance before they stopped bickering. "Essentially Kyoya Gaen is trying to take over the world," Drum explains. I blinked.

"You can't be serious."

"Dead serious. He sees society as corrupt and that he and his buddy, Azi Dahaka, will be able to rule the world better instead once they destroy everything and rebuild it from scratch."

It took me a bit of time to process the bit of information before I decided that to not try to think about it too much. This was straight out of a cartoon show! But considering how powerful Monsters were, something like this wasn't exactly out of the ballpark.

Was he willing to destroy everything, to kill millions of people just because he thought the world was corrupt? It this childish way of thinking that made my stomach churn.

"Alright," I grimaced, "Where is-"

"No, you can't kill him," Drum cut me off. "He's one of the wealthiest people in Japan and almost everything in Japan is reliant on his company. If he dies the nation's economy will collapse. The one time that he actually did die made things much worse."

"He's not a bad person!" Gao shot back, "He just needs someone to show him the right way."

"Gao," Drum warned. The human clenched his fist and remained silent before the dragon continued. "We'll give you more info when the time comes. But considering how much damage you did to Cord you should be fine. Just whatever you do, don't accept a Dark Core. Kyoya will bring you under control that way."

I nodded in response before I pressed on, "What about this Yamigeddo thing then?" I asked

Drum sighed, "Well basically here's it goes. A long time ago the strongest eight monsters in all of the worlds were called together…"

After it was all said and done, I finally left the house feeling rather frustrated. I was definitely stuck in a children's cartoon, I realized. Somethings just didn't make sense to me. Others were too childish for me to even acknowledge.

The problem was that I understood Drum's point. Even though it was Kyoya that caused a lot of problems, just killing him made more problems than they fixed. My hands were tied in that respect: all I could really do was sit in school and do nothing. It was starting to drive me insane and stir-crazy.

This Loop had an actual shortage of crime. My recent patrols had turned up nothing within that past month: a blessing and a curse in a way.

For now, I guess I would just keep doing what I was doing earlier. At least Gao and Drum would let me know when the major events would get started. Drum mentioned an invasion from Darkness Dragon World would arrive soon, so I figured might as well get started preparing.

If nothing else it would be enough to keep myself from going completely and utterly insane.

* * *

4.1: Skitter? I don't think she exists.

4.2: Tyranids OP, please nerf [Future Card Buddyfight]

4.3: It's good to have a hobby

4.4: Kyubey: Not the worst thing in _every_ universe. [Puella Magi Madoka Magica]

4.5: Turns out being a web celebrity pays better than being a crook

4.6: Picking up new skills, a Looper's favourite pastime [A Dinosaur Named Minerva]

4.7: She's got the magic touch [Artemis Fowl]

4.8: Taylor's first Weird Loop. They happen.

4.9: Taylor is a total munchkin


End file.
